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INDUSTRIAL  INSTRUCTION 


A  PEDAGOGIC  AND  SOCIAL  NECESSITY; 


TOGETHER    TTTTH 


A  CEITIQUE  UPON  OBJECTIONS  ADVANCED. 


BY 

ROBERT    SKIDKIv, 

Mollis,  Switzerland. 


TRANSLATED  BY  MARGARET  K.    SMITH, 
State  Nobmal  School,  Oswego,  New  York. 

GTATEKORMALSCHOGi 


94  14 


BOSTON : 

PUBLISHED  BY  D.  C.  HEATH  &  CO, 

1887. 


Copyright,  1887, 
Bt  MARGARET  K.  SMITH. 


RUrtrotj/pfrt  and  Printed  hit 
ALrRiD  MuiJOK  &  Sov,  24  r'KAiCKLi.v  Stkkbt. 


5t? 


TABLE   OF   CONTENTS, 


PUBLISHERS'  PREFACE v 

INTRODUCTION ix 

CHAPTER  I.  —  The  Intster  Relation  between  Industrial 

Instruction  and  the  Social  Question         ...        3 

CHAPTER  II.  —  Errors,  Contr.idictions,  a.nd  Inconsisten- 
cies OF  THE  Opponents  of  Industrl\l  Instruction    .      13 

CHAPTER  III.  —  The  Econoahc  Objections  to  Industrial 

Instruction 30 

I.     Competition 30 

II.     Speculation 35 

III.     Diminution  of  tlie  Number  of  Purchasers  .         .  36 

rv.     Misconception  of  the  Utility  of  Division  of  Labor,  37 

CHAPTER  IV.  —  The  Plausible  and  Legal  Objections  to 

Industrial  Instruction 42 

I.     The  Child's  Inclination  for  Activity  is  sufficiently 

cultivated  in  the  Family 42 

II.     The  Father  should  instruct  the  Son  in  his  Handi- 
craft    55 

III.  Compulsory  Industrial  Instruction  would  Inter- 

fere with  the  Parents'  Rights     .         .         .         .57 

IV.  The  Rural  Population  require  no  Industrial  Edu- 

cation   66 


IV  TABLE    OF    CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER  V.  —  The  Objections  of  Educators  A^^>  School 
MEN  TO  Industrial  Instruction    .... 
-\    I.     The  Aim  of  the  School  aud  of  Industrial  Instruc 

tion 

II.     Can  Gymnastics  secure  harmonious  Develop 

ment? 

III.     The  School  already  pursues  Hand  Labor    . 
rv.     Disciplinary  and  Educational  VaRie  of  Drawing 

Industrial,  and  Science  Instruction 
V.     Objective  Methods  of  Instruction  in  Forest  and 

Field 

VI.     Objective  and  Hand-Labor  Instruction 
VII.     Industrial  Instruction  can  not  remedy  the  Disad- 
vantages of  the  Present  School  System 
VIII.     Increase  of  Hours  for  Instruction 
IX.     Hand  Labor  should  be  Vacation  Employment 

and  in  Childhood  merely  Play 
X.     School  Hand  Labor  and  Choice  of  a  Profession 
XI.     The  Decline  of  the  Teacher's  Position 
XII.     The  Union  of  Study  and  Labor  in  the  School 
'-  *  XIII.    Method  of  Industrial  Instruction 


74 
74 

83 
86 


97 
99 

103 
106 

110 
115 
125 
131 
137 


CHAPTER  VI.  —  What  do  the  Classic  Educators  say  op 

Industkial  Instruction? 143 

\       CHAPTER  VII.  —  Educational  and  Socls.l  Necessity  for 

Industrial  Instruction.  —  Supplementary  R£sumj£    .     148 
Conclusion 159 


PUBLISHERS'   PREFACE, 


As  the  readers  of  Herr  Seidel's  interesting  discus- 
sion may  wish  to  know  something  of  the  writer  and 
of  the  circumstances  that  led  to  the  preparation  of 
this  little  book,  we  give  the  following  sketch  :  — 

From  his  earliest  youth,  the  author  was  deeply  inter- 
ested in  educational  questions.  He  was  set  to  thinking 
about  industrial  education  by  the  following  statement 
which  he  found  in  the  once  prohibited,  but  now  famous, 
work  of  Karl  Marx  :  "  In  the  education  of  the  future, 
labor  will  be  combined  ivith  gymnastics  and  instruction, 
because  that  is  the  only  method  of  ti^aining  symmetri- 
cally developed  men,  and  is  also  a  means  of  increasing 
the  productiveness  of  the  community. ^^  Long  before 
the  question  of  industrial  educatign  had  been  revived  in 
Germany  by  Clauson-Kaas,  Seidel  had  occupied  him- 
self with  it  i  and  having  studied  educational  science  and 
been  a  teacher,  he  believed  himself  authorized  to  present 
the  subject  from  a  stand-point  other  than  that  from 


VI  INDUSTRIAL   INSTRUCTION. 

which  it  had  generally  been  considered ;  that  is,  from 
the  pedagogical  side. 

He  watched  the  movement  set  on  foot  in  Germany, 
by  Clauson-Kaas,  but  was  convinced  that  it  was  an 
error  to  advocate  industrial  education  as  a  means  for 
elevating  the  small  trades.  Through  many  years' 
personal  experience,  as  well  as  by  thorough  study, 
he  had  learned  that  the  small  trades  were  a  de- 
clining form  of  domestic  industry  which  it  would 
be  as  impossible  as  it  was  uneconomic  to  preserve. 
Experience  also  showed  that  industrial  instruction, 
in  the  sphere  of  mechanical  pursuits,  in  no  way  im- 
plied the  elevation  of  the  small  trades.  Indeed,  the 
small  mechanics  already  complained  that  the  new 
branch  of  instruction  was  the  cause  of  their  ruin,  — 
a  complaint  which  he  thought  quite  as  unfounded 
as  the  belief  that  by  it  the  trades  would  attain 
their  highest  elevation.  By  industrial  instruction,  he 
thought  the  small  trades  would  neither  be  benefited 
nor  ruined  ;  not  l)enefited,  because  all  the  advantages 
of  industrial  instruction  accrue  also  to  the  worst  enemy 
of  th(i  small  trades,  to  the  large  and  machine  indus- 
tries ;  and  not  ruined,  because  they  were  already 
ruined  hy  these  same  large  industries,  with  their  su- 
perior advantages.     Seeing,  therefore,  that  the  whole 


PUBLISHERS    PREFACE.  Vll 

question  was  being  viewed  from  a  wrong  stand-point, 
Seidel  interested  himself  in  putting  it  on  a  pedagogi- 
cal and  therefore  a  broader  basis. 

The  present  work  grew  out  of  a  reply  made  by 
him  to  objections  raised  against  industrial  instruction 
in  the  Syood  of  the  Canton  of  Zurich,  where  the  ques- 
tion was  up  for  discussion  in  the  years  1882  and  1884. 
At  the  earnest  solicitation  of  others,  he  rewrote  the 
work,  omitting  local  and  personal  matters,  and  giving 
to  it  a  more  general  character.  In  it  he  has  undertaken 
to  answer  all  objections  to  industrial  instruction,  from 
whatsoever  source,  and  to  state  the  reasons  in  its  favor. 

He  states  the  question  thus  :  "  Is  industrial  instruc- 
tion pedagogicdlly  necessary^  superfluous,  or  is  it  actu- 
ally injurious  9  "     And  adds  :  — 

"  If  it  can  be  shown  that  it  is  a  pedagogical  necessity, 
it  becomes  the  duty  of  all  educators  and  philanthropists 
to  aid  in  removing  the  practical  difficulties  that  oppose 
the  introduction  of  hand  labor  into  the  school." 


INTRODUCTION. 


At  the  International  Educational  Congress  held  at 
Havre,  France,  in  September,  1885,  I  heard  Herr 
Seidel  speak  upon  the  question  of  industrial  instruc- 
tion in  the  schools,  and  was  much  impressed  with  the 
earnestness  of  the  man,  as  well  as  with  the  force  of  his 
arguments. 

Herr  Seidel's  book  upon  the  above-mentioned  sub- 
ject has  already  been  translated  into  French  and  Italian, 
and  I  now  have  much  pleasure  in  presenting  it  to  the 
^  attention  of  English-speaking  educators  and  schoolmen, 
^     with  the  hope  that  it  may  aid  in  crystallizing  the  some- 
,    what  indefinite  thought  upon  the  question  of  manual 
instruction  in  the  schools,  which  already  exists  in  both 
England  and  America. 

The  translation  of  the  work  of  a  writer  so  unique  in 
style,  and  so  peculiar  in  the  use  of  words,  has  been  no 
light  task.     I  have  endeavored,  however,  to  preserve 


X  INDUSTRIAL   INSTRUCTION-. 

somethinor  of  the  force  and  clearness  of  the  orisrinal 
text,  in  which  effort  I  have  been  greatly  assisted  by 
Madame  Thekla  de  Soto,  of  Jena,  Tl\Uringia,  Ger- 
many, and  Prof.  C.  M.  Woodward,  of  St.  Louis,  Mo. 

Margaret  K.  Smith, 
State  Normal  School,  Oswego,  iV".  Y, 

June  30, 1887. 


INDUSTRIAL  INSTRUCTION, 


u 


INDUSTEIAL  INSTRUCTION. 


CHAPTER   I. 

THE   INNER  RELATION  BETWEEN  INDUSTRIAL  INSTRUC- 
TION AND   THE   SOCIAL   QUESTION. 

The  friends  and  opponents  of  industrial  instruction 
are  doubtless  right  in  presenting  tliis  subject  in  connec- 
tion with  the  social  question.  Just  as  the  question  of 
popular  education  in  general  is  connected  with  the 
social  question,  so  the  question  of  industrial  instruc- 
tion in  particular  is  united  with  it. 

In  the  literature  extant,  we  seek  in  vain  to  discover 
an  explanation  of  the  relationship  existing  between  the 
two  questions.  No  one  fails  to  perceive  that  they  have 
many  exterior  points  of  contact,  and  these  are  generally 
pointed  out ;  but  what  inner  connection  exists  between 
the  two  ?     Let  us  try  to  make  this  clear. 

If  we  follow  the  history  of  education  and  instruction 
among  different  nations,  through  different  epochs,  we 
shall  find  that  they,  as  well  as  literature  and  art,  law 
and  morals,  stand  in  the  closest  connection  with  the 
existing  social  and  political  conditions.  Indeed,  we 
see  that  they  are  only  expressions  of  these  conditions. 
While  in  regard  to  literature  and  art,  law  and  morals, 


4  INDUSTRIAL   INSTRUCTION. 

this  truth  is  to  a  certain  extent  recognized,  in  connec- 
tion with  forms  and  systems  of  education  and  instruc- 
tion, it  is  not  at  all  properly  recognized.  Yet  education 
and  instruction  throughout  are  only  expressions  for  ex- 
isting  social  and  civil  relations. 

In  order  to  prove  the  correctness  of  this  assertion,  we 
have  only  to  ask  whether,  in  the  feudal  state,  before  the 
Revolution,  our  present  public-school  system  could  have 
had  a  place. 

Surely,  as  with  one  voice,  the  answer  will  be,  iVo. 
Before  1798,  and  even  before  1830,  our  school  of  to-day 
was  not  possible,  not  even  conceivable.  The  gracious 
lords^  would  not  have  permitted  it.  They,  in  common 
with  all  other  rulers,  declared  education  to  be  one  of 
their  inalienable  prerogatives,  and  forbade  it,  and  ren- 
dered it  impossible  for  the  people.  Also,  previous  to 
emancipation  from  the  burdens  of  feudalism,  the  people 
had  neither  means  nor  time  to  have  such  a  school  as  ex- 
ists to-day. 

Our  jpreseyit  school  exists  on  the  presumption  that  it 
is  the  product  of  our  present  civil  society. 

But  as  our  present  system  of  education  and  instruc- 
tion is  the  expression  of  our  present  civil  society,  so  was 
the  mediaeval  system  of  education  and  instruction  the 
corresponding  expression  of  feudal,  clerical,  and  corpo- 
rate society,  and  the  system  of  education  in  ancient  states 
the  expression  of  a  society  established  upon  slavery. 

*  Written  with  special  reference  to  Switzerland,  but  in  reality  true 
in  regard  to  other  countries. 


INDUSTRIAL    INSTRUCTION.  5 

Before  slavery  existed,  in  the  narrow  tribal  life,  all 
authority  was  vested  in  the  elders,  who  also  discharged 
the  duties  of  instructors.  But  in  doing  this,  they  could 
develop  a  system  of  education  and  instruction  as  little 
as,  through  the  isolated  examination  of  natural  objects, 
minerals,  plants,  animals,  etc.,  they  could  establish 
a  science.  It  was  simply  domestic  education,  yet,  in 
this  connection,  it  is  not  necessary  to  think  of  a  house 
or  home ;  it  may  be  just  as  correctly  associated  with  a 
tent,  a  cave,  a  forest,  or  an  open  field.  As  domestic 
education,  it  was  an  individual  education,  without  co- 
herence, conscious  aim,  principles,  or  system. 

But  as  slavery  increased,  and  out  of  tribal  rule  a 
state  with  a  governing  class  was  evolved,  a  state  edu- 
cation, a  system  of  instruction,  was  developed.  At  first, 
this  education  had  naturally  but  a  single  aim,  viz.,  to 
strengthen  the  power  of  the  governing  classes,  and  to 
fortify  and  increase  their  superiority.  We  need  only 
think  of  the  Spartan  system  of  education.  As  all  la- 
bor—  even  training  and  teaching  —  was  despised,  so 
the  duties  of  instructing  and  educating  were  transferred 
to  the  slaves.  Even  in  the  glorified  land  of  Greece, 
the  educators  were  slaves,  and  occupied  a  much  lower 
plane,  socially,  than  the  nursery-maids  of  the  present 
day. 

In  the  ancient  states,  education  and  instruction  being 
limited  strictly  to  the  governing  class,  the  great  mass 
of  the  nation,  the  slaves,  were  completely  excluded  from 
its  advantages.     The  austere  Cato,  who  wrote,  among 


6  INDUSTRIAL    INSTRUCTION. 

other  things,  pedagogic  treatises,  advised  that  the  cus- 
tom of  resting  on  Sunday  be  discontinued,  that  the 
slaves  might  be  employed  on  that  day;  "for,"  said  he, 
"the  slave  must  either  work  or  sleep;  otherwise,  he 
will  entertain  improper  thoughts." 

When  with  the  Roman  Empire  the  Old  World  de- 
clined, and  out  of  long  wrestling  and  struggling  the  castes 
of  the  Christian  world  arose,  the  forms  of  education  and 
instruction  became  changed.  The  education  of  classes 
was  established.  Finest,  knight,  and  burgher  were 
reared  and  trained.  In  the  early  Middle  Ages,  when 
the  citizen's  position  w^as  as  yet  undeveloped,  the  educa- 
tion of  priest  and  knight  exceeded  that  of  the  burghers, 
who  were  weak  in  numbers  and  consequently  powerless. 
As  with  childish  presumption,  mediaeval  society  consid- 
ered itself  to  be  merely  a  continuation  of  the  Roman, 
as  Latin  was  the  ecclesiastical,  secular,  and  commercial 
language,  and  furthermore,  as  the  Old  World  treas- 
ures of  learning  had  become  crystallized  in  the  Latin 
tongue,  we  cannot  wonder  that  to  priest  and  burgher, 
Latin  appeared  to  be  the  principal  means  of  educa- 
tion, as  well  as  the  end  and  aim  of  all  teaching  and 
learning. 

For  the  knights,  however,  gymnastics,  the  use  of 
arms,  and  court  service  were  the  aims  of  instruction 
and  culture,  because  they  —  as  was  Latin  for  the 
clergy  —  were  the  means  of  government. 

But  as  the  citizen  class  constantly  developed,  burgher 
education  also  became  more  prominent.     Naturally,  the 


INDUSTRIAL   INSTRUCTION.  7 

development  of  the  burgher  class  went  hand  in  hand 
with  the  decline  of  the  nobility  and  clergy.  This  de- 
velopment was  greatly  promoted  by  the  discoveries  and 
inventions  of  the  fifteenth  and  sixteenth  centuries,  and 
this  powerful  strengthening  of  the  burgher's  position 
found  its  expression  in  a  still  greater  advance  in 
burgher  education  and  culture.  From  the  sixteenth 
century  forward,  burgher  education  and  training  were 
predominant,  while  the  clerical  and  still  more  the 
knightly,  retrograded.  Already  isolated  educational 
prophets  appeared,  and  proclaimed,  of  course  without 
practical  success,  the  idea  of  popular  education.  But 
in  the  eighteenth  century,  when  the  burgher's  position 
became  that  of  the  mass  of  the  nation,  the  idea  of  gen- 
eral education  as  a  practical  necessity,  and  no  longer  as 
a  theoretical  formula,  first  arose  and  opposed  the  idea 
of  the  education  of  rank  or  class. 

Those  forerunners  of  popular  education  —  a  Rous- 
seau, the  philanthropists,  a  Pestalozzi  —  knew  very 
well  what  was  meant  by  this,  and  their  followers  must 
also  have  known,  otherwise  would  the  common  school 
of  modern  times  never  have  become  a  reality.  Gen- 
eral popular  education  was  to  them  no  mere  phrase, 
too  indefinite,  saying  too  much  and  therefore  too 
little.  They  did  not  understand  from  it  arithmetical 
expedients  from  the  learning  of  the  Europeans,  the 
Chinese,  and  the  Soudanese,  but  they  understood,  in 
the  first  place,  opposition  to  class  and  caste  instruction  ; 
and  in  the  second,  the  harmonious  training  of  all  the 


8  INDUSTRIAL   INSTRUCTION. 

faculties  and  talents  of  all  men,  at  least  of  all  the  mem- 
bers of  the  same  nation. 

Now,  is  this  general  education  already  achieved? 
No  !  and  again  no  !  It  has  only  made  a  mere  begin- 
ning in  the  public  school.  The  foundation  is  laid,  but 
as  yet  no  building  has  been  raised  thereon. 

Who  will  deny  that  even  to-day  we  are  authorized 
in  speaking  of  class  education,  in  the  face  of  the 
fact  that  the  majority  of  our  young  citizens  have  hardly 
command  of  even  the  elements  of  education  and 
knowledge,  as  is  proved  by  the  recruiting  examina- 
tions?^ 

Is  it  not  true  that  between  the  factory  hand  and  the 
educated  man  of  to-day  almost  as  great  a  gap  exists 
as  between  the  slave  and  the  philosopher  of  ancient 
Greece?  How  much  of  literature,  art,  and  science  does 
the  mass  of  our  people  understand?  Who  reads  our 
classics?  Who  appreciates  our  art  treasures?  Who 
comprehends  anything  of  the  enormous  acquisitions  of 
modern  science  ? 


1  In  Prussia,  for  some  time,  recruits  for  the  army  have  been  ex- 
amined in  reading  and  writing,  and  it  has  been  shown  that  in  single 
provinces,  thirteen  and  even  nineteen  of  every  hundred  men  have 
not  been  able  to  read  and  write. 

In  Switzerland,  Avhcre  for  ten  years  these  examinations  of  men 
capable  of  bearing  arms  liave  been  made  by  teaclicrs,  and  not,  as  in 
Prussia,  by  military  men,  and  have  included  arithmetic  and  knowl- 
edge of  the  fatlierland,  i.  c,  geography,  history,  constitutional  Iiis- 
tory,  only  a  few  were  ignorant  of  reading  sind  writing,  in  1884-85 
from  three  per  cent  to  four  per  cent,  but  the  general  results  were 
very  limited  and  unsatisfactory. 


INDUSTEIAL   mSTRUCTION.  9 

Every  one  who  knows  the  circumstances  can  answer 
the  question  only  with  deep  sorrow  and  confusion. 

So  long  as  such  gaps  yawn  between  the  members  of 
a  nation,  the  demand  for  general  education  appears  to 
us,  and  to  many  thousand  others  as  well,  to  be  no  mere 
phrase,  though  a  thorough  schoolman  may  find  it  too 
indefinite. 

In  the  face  of  the  fact  that  it  is  still  possible  to  set 
people  against  each  other  like  wild  hordes,  it  can  be 
no  mere  indefinite  phrase.     If  general  education  were    ( 
achieved,  this  would  be  simply  impossible. 

Indeed,  we  should  be  careful  of  speaking  slightingly 
of  general  education,  for  the  reason  that  our  noblest  and 
best  men  have  struggled  and  sufiered  for  it. 

The  fact  that  the  promulgation  of  human  development 
goes  hand  in  hand  with  the  promulgation  of  human 
rights,  proves  the  close  connection  between  great  educa- 
tional theories  and  social  revolutions.  About  the  time 
of  great  social  transformations,  great  educators  always 
make  their  appearance.  Hence,  each  form  of  society 
begets  its  form  of  education,  and  each  stage  of  the  economic 
development  of  manhind  implies  a  definite  system  of  edu- 
cation and  instruction. 

We  no  more  have  a  constant,  unchanging  pedagogy 
than  we  have  an  unchanging  form  of  society ;  both  are 
in  a  state  of  continual  movement  and  continual  develop- 
ment. Now,  in  the  matter  of  social  development,  what 
is  our  position  to-day  ?  Whoever  has  capacity  to  un- 
derstand and  interpret  the  sighing  and  groaning  in  the 


10  INDUSTRIAL   INSTRUCTION. 

rushing  loom  of  time,  knows  that  a  mighty  social  revo- 
lution is  in  the  near  future.  The  present  economic  form 
of  capital,  private  production,  free  competition,  and 
profit  of  men  by  men,  has  expired;  it  has  become  an 
anachronism,  and  must  go  the  way  of  slavery  and  feudal- 
ism. We  already  find  ourselves  in  a  transition  state, 
ready  for  new  economic  forms,  for  common  interests, 
intelligent  co-operation,  and  assistance  of  all  for  all. 
r  In  proportion  to  the  realization  of  this  new  social  form 
will  a  new  system  of  education  and  instruction  make 
its  w^ay.  The  new  element  in  this  system  will  be  the 
principle  of  hand  labor.  The  principle  of  socialism,  to 
make  co-operative  profitable  labor  the  groundwork  of 
social  and  political  life,  demands  recognition  and  reali- 
zation in  the  educational  department.  We  do  not  con- 
sider industrial  instruction  to  be  merely  occupation  for 
otherwise  idle  boys,  still  less  an  opening  of  new  sources 
of  profit  or  income  for  poor  parents,  or  the  improve- 
ment of  handicrafts ;  but  the  introduction  of  a  new 
principle,  that  of  labor,  into  public  instruction,  exactly 
as  the  Rousseau-Pestalozzian  movement  was  considered 
with  regard  to  the  principle  of  natural  development  and 
observation. 

We  are  neither  afraid  nor  ashamed  to  assume  the 
prophet's  role,  and  to  predict :  — 

/So  surely  as  with  civil  society  the  ideas  of  the  culture 
of  mankind,  natural  development,  and  observation  made 
their  way  into  the  j)edagogy  of  the  time,  so  surely  loith 
the  neto  order  of  society  will  its  jj^'incij^le,  labor,  achieve 


INDUSTRIAL   INSTRUCTION.  11 

its  citizenship  in  the  system  of  education.  Struggling 
against  it  is  vain.  The  future  in  the  state,  as  ivell  as 
in  pedagogy,  belongs  to  labor. 

We  should  not  be  guided  to  false  conclusions  by 
the  historical  evidence  that,  during  the  last  hundred 
years,  industrial  instruction  has  several  times  vainly 
demanded  admission  into  general  education.  AYhoever, 
on  the  plea  of  its  worthlessness,  would  exclude  this 
branch  of  study,  together  with  its  method,  or  would 
be  misled  into  the  belief  that  industrial  instruction 
will  never  be  admitted  into  the  plan  of  public  educa- 
tion, would  only  exhibit  a  very  unflattering  evidence  of 
his  own  historical  knowledge  and  judgment.  Objective 
instruction  was  obliged  to  wait  nearly  two  hundred  years 
for  general  recognition  and  adoption,  yet  to-day  no  one 
will  question  its  value.  Sometimes  the  good  triumphs 
late,  also  sometimes  not  at  all.  Success  is  a  standard 
not  to  be  employed  by  critics. 

As  a  sign  of  the  times,  we  quote  a  selection  from  the 
discourse  of  M.  Jules  Ferry,  late  French  Minister  of 
Public  Instruction,  upon  the  occasion  of  the  laying  of 
the  corner-stone  of  the  school  for  primary,  superior, 
and  professional  instruction  (at  Paris).  He  spoke  as 
follows  :  — 

"  We  desire  to  ennoble  hand  labor.  We  have  written 
this  motto  in  large  letters  upon  our  programme,  and  we 
have  chosen  the  surest,  indeed  the  only  means  of  secur- 
ing the  recognition  of  the  nobility  of  hand  labor,  not 
y  only  from  those  who  exercise  it,  but  also  from  society 


12  INDUSTRIAL   INSTRUCTION. 

as  a  whole-     We  have  introduced  hand  labor  into  the 
school  itself! 

"Believe  me,  when  the  plane  and  file  are  accorded 
their  place  of  honor  by  the  side  of  the  compass,  the 
map,  and  the  text-book  in  history,  and  when  they  be- 
come the  objects  of  rational  and  systematic  instruction, 
only  then  will  a  great  amount  of  prejudice  die  out,  and 
much  of  the  spirit  of  caste  vanish  away.  Social  peace 
will  find  a  place  upon  the  seats  of  the  elementary  school ; 
and  harmony,  with  her  beaming  light,  will  illuminate 
the  future  of  the  nation  ! " 

Truly,  if  this  has  been  declared  by  the  leader  of  pub- 
lic instruction  for  a  great  nation,  and  if,  as  we  see 
to-day  in  France,  the  word  has  become  flesh,  then  this 
matter  cannot  be  arrested  by  a  few  apt  phrases  of  school- 
men, but  with  or  without  the  mediation  of  official  peda- 
gogy, must  make  its  way  through  the  educated  world. 


INDUSTRIAL  lA^STRUCTION.  13 


CHAPTER  n. 

EEEORS,    CONTRADICTIONS,    AND    INCONSISTENCIES    OF 
THE   OPPONENTS   OF  INDUSTRIAL  INSTRUCTION. 

All  opponents  of  industrial  instruction,  from  the 
great  Diesterweg  to  tJie  smallest  laborer  in  the  vine- 
yard of  education,  start  from  the  entirely  false  premise 
that  industrial  instruction  in  the  public  school  has  for 
its  aim  the  training  of  the  children  for  mechanics. 
They  consider  that  it  implies  the  introduction  of  one  or 
of  several  definite  trades  into  the  school.  Out  of  in- 
dustrial instruction  they  make  a  kind  of  spectre,  strike 
out  boldly  at  this  phantom  of  their  own  construction ; 
and  since  every  spectre  is  easily  vanquished,  in  the 
eyes  of  many  spectators  they  succeed  in  slaying  this 
dragon.  While  Diesterweg,  in  regard  to  industrial 
instruction,  restricted  himself  to  speaking  of  learning 
special  handicrafts  in  the  school,  and  Griibe  discourses 
upon  "  apprentices  to  trades,"  a  later  and  more  impor- 
tant educational  writer  deals  with  "  bread-winning  in- 
struction for  the  children  in  the  school,"  and  another 
w^ith  "  excessive  labor  before  the  proper  time." 

But  the  latest  opponents  of  this  branch  and  method 
of  instruction  thoughtlessly  identify  the  Klauson  Cass 


14 


INDUSTKIAL   INSTRUCTION. 


efforts  for  the  elevation  of  domestic  industry  with  in- 
dustrial instruction  in  general,  whereb}^  they  place,  not 
only  the  efforts  mentioned,  but  especially  the  aim  of 
the  Danish  Rittmeister  in  a  false  light. ^  However,  if 
we  credit  the  Danish  Rittmeister  with  efforts  for  the 
elevation  of  domestic  industry,  we  characterize  only 
the  object  and  not  the  person. 

The  indentification  of  these  efforts  with  industrial 
instruction  is,  however,  a  fundamental  error  which 
is  only  explicable  upon  the  grounds  of  ignorance  of 
the  history  of  industrial  instruction,  lack  of  discern- 
ment, or  preconceived  prejudice.  This  error  is  unfor- 
tunately so  universal  that  even  the  friends  of  industrial 
instruction  are  not  free  from  it.  The  attacks  of  the 
opponents  of  industrial  instruction,  however,  are  not 
directed  in  their  overwhelming  majority  against  it,  but 
generally  against  efforts  for  the  elevation  of  domestic 
industry,  which,  as  a  rule,  they  exaggerate ;  hence 
they  apply  to  the  case  of  Klauson  Cass,  and  not  to 
industrial  instruction  in  general.  Now,  these  move- 
ments for  the  promotion  of  domestic  industry  represent 
only  one  form,  and  indeed  thelowest  form^  of  industrial 
instruction.  The  adherents  and  forerunners  of  this 
kind  of  industrial  instruction  —  among  whom  Klauson 
Cass,  from  his  theoretical  stand-point,  can  no  longer  be 
numbered  —  obser^ve  as  their  aim  principalhj  the  devel- 


^  This  reference  is  to  Klauson  Cass,  a  Danish  gentleman,  who,  a 
few  years  ago,  published  a  work  in  connection  with  industrial  labor 
in  the  home. 


INDUSTRIAL   INSTRUCTION.  15 

op7nent  of  certain  kinds  of  manual  skill,  partly  by  this 
means  to  promote  domestic  industry,  partly  to  prejmre 
for  a  later  profession,  to  supply  trained  strength  to  hand 
labor,  and  thus  to  elevate  it. 

Their  motives  are  essentially  of  an  economic  nature, 
and  indeed  limited  to  very  narrow  grooves,  in  which 
educational  considerations  have  no  part, 

A  second  much  higher  form  of  industrial  instruction 
is  advocated  by  those  who  seek  for  the  aim  of  indus- 
trial instruction  preferably  in  the  training  in  manual 
skill,  in  awakening  pleasure  and  love  for  labor  and 
intellio^ence  for  life.  To  them  formal  traininoj  is  the 
chief  object,  and  hence  they  unite  theory  with  practice. 
While  with  the  first  party,  essentially  economic  points 
of  view  are  determinative,  with  the  second  principally 
educational  points  of  view  are  authoritative ;  while, 
according  to  the  first  party,  any  mechanic  totally 
untrained  in  pedagogy  may  act  as  instructor,  though 
he  understand  not  a  particle  of  the  theory  of  his  trade, 
according  to  the  second  party  technically  trained  in- 
structors will  be  required. 

The  point  which  the  two  parties  have  in  common  is 
that  a  practical  element  shall  be  infused  into  the  school, 
and  a  closer  connection  between  it  and  life  efiected. 

Now,  although  we  advocate  the  views  of  neither 
party,  least  of  all  the  first,  we  must  admit  the  common 
aim  to  be  entirely  justifiable.  Also,  who  would  be  so 
short-sighted  as  not  to  perceive  that  a  closer  connection 
between  school  and  life  is  necessary,  and  that  the  school 


16  INDUSTRIAL   INSTRUCTION. 

needs  a  practical  element  as  a  change  from  its  abstract 
instruction?  To  the  third  party  of  advocates  of  indus- 
trial instruction  belong  those  who  perceive  in  hand 
labor  an  indispensable  means  for  the  harmonious  educa- 
tion of  mankind.  To  them,  labor  is  not,  in  the  first 
place,  the  end  and  means  for  the  satisfying  of  economic 
needs,  but  it  is,  above  all,  the  means  for  phi/sical  and 
mental  training  and  education.  Training  in  manuah 
skill,  satisfying  of  material  needs,  preparation  for  life, 
are  thereby  certainly  not  excluded ;  but  they  are  not 
the  first  aims,  say  rather  the  second,  third,  fourth, 
or  that  they  may  be  considered  incidental  products. 
Besides  less  well-known  names,  nearly  all  the  great 
educators,  especially  Kousseau  and  Pestalozzi,  appear 
as  advocates  of  this  party. 

Now,  if  industrial  instruction  be  opposed  from  the 
educational  side,  —  and  the  opposition  is  chiefly  from 
that  side, —  the  educational  view  of  it  should  be  opposed, 
and  not  the  economic,  small-citizen  view  of  a  Klauson 
Cass  and  cf  our  mechanics.  That  would  be  proper  for 
educators,  for  to  them  educational  and  not  economic 
reasons  should  be  the  standard. 

From  the  above  few  remarks  it  is  easy  to  perceive 
that  it  is  wrong  to  assert  that  industrial  instruction  deals 
only  with  home  labor  and  domestic  industry.  If  this 
were  truly  the  case,  we  should  not  advocate  it,  for  we 
know  that  home  labor  is  a  declining  form  of  produc- 
tion, which,  on  account  of  hygienic  and  moral  injury, 
is  rightly  condemned  in  political  economy.     We  have 


INDUSTRIAL   INSTRUCTION.  17 

ourselves  suffered  from  the  pernicious  influence  of  home 
industry,  and  lost  by  it  several  years  of  health,  strength, 
and  enjoyment  of  life,  so  that  we  can  not  become 
enthusiastic  over  home  labor,  which  means  home  in- 
dustry. Home  industry  is  nothing  but  a  great  martyr- 
dom for  the  laborer  who  pursues  it.  It  is  also  an 
economic  anachronism,  opposed  to  the  progress  of  large 
industries,  which  only  preserves  its  identity  for  the 
reason  that  by  it  the  laborers  employed  are  so  badly 
paid  and  stand  on  so  low  a  social  scale,  that  the  fur- 
nishing of  eifective  machinery,  otherwise  long  known, 
pays  the  undertaker  no  better  than  the  employing  of 
the  cheapest  kind  of  hand  labor.  Whoever  can  at  present 
recommend  home  industry  as  a  social  remedy,  certainly 
does  not  know  it  from  personal  observation,  and  has  very 
little  idea  of  modern  systems  of  labor. 

Those  who,  by  home  industry,  propose  to  relieve  the 
social  need,  start  from  the  supposition  that  social  misery 
had  its  origin  in  the  people's  aversion  to  labor.  This  is 
absolutely  wrong.  Need  and  misery  have  not  arisen 
from  dislike  for  labor,  but  from  the  absorption  by  large 
capital  of  the  interests  of  the  citizen  and  farmer  of  the 
middle  class,  and  from  human  labor  power  being  replaced 
by  machinery.  Thousands  of  laborers  would  gladly 
work,  if  they  could  only  find  work  to  do.  Do  we  not 
know  that  laborers  out  of  work  demand  employment 
from  state  and  community?  Is  this,  perhaps,  a  sign  of 
aversion  to  labor?  or,  when  merely  to  tide  over  a  crisis, 
skilful   mechanics,    indeed,   artistic    workmen,   do  the 

2 


18  INDUSTRIAL   INSTRUCTIOlSr. 

work  of  navvies,  is  it  a  sign  of  dislike  for  labor?  When 
we  speak  of  laborers  who  are  suffering  severely  under 
a  crisis  as  if  they  were  people  dreading  work,  who  must 
be  assisted  economically  and  morally  by  having  pleasure 
infused  into  labor,  do  we  not  add  mockery  to  misery? 
We  know  needy  German  districts  and  otherwise  poor 
neighborhoods,  so  called,  but  we  have  never  seen  and 
never  heard  that  the  population  living  in  those  places 
ever  failed  in  industry  and  love  for  labor ;  but  certainly 
v/ork,  or,  at  least,  profitable  employment,  failed  them. 
Then,  who  is  to  be  assisted  by  home  industry?  The 
factory  hand  and  the  laborer  in  domestic  industry.  But 
if  the  business  is  good,  then  the  factory  hand,  with  from 
eleven  to  fourteen  hours',  and  the  laborer  in  home  in- 
dustry, with  at  least  fifteen  hours'  time  for  work,  has 
more  than  enough  to  do.  Neither  time  nor  strength 
remains  to  him  for  the  exercise  of  other  home  labor. 
However,  if  business  does  not  flourish,  and  he  has  time 
to  be  diligent  at  home,  and  zealously  constructs  brushes, 
brooms,  baskets,  pasteboard  work,  house  and  kitchen 
utensils,  good  !  but  who  is  to  buy  them  from  him  ? 
Even  in  good  times  people  buy  those  things  last  of  all ; 
also,  there  is  really  no  lack  of  them,  and  a  part  of  them 
is  so  cheaply  manufactured  on  a  large  scale  that  the  un- 
skilled small  producer  has  no  chance  at  all  for  competi- 
tion. Besides,  where  would  the  laborer  get  money  for 
the  purchase  of  tools  and  raw  material,  especially  if  no 
immediate  exchange  of  the  labor  products  were  possible  ? 
It  is  plain  that  in  order  to  help  suffering  laborers  through 


INDUSTEIAI.  INSTRUCTION.  19 

a  crisis  by  means  of  home  labor,  they  must  all  be  made 
small  manufacturers,  capable  of  keeping  goods  in  stock. 
This  can  he  done  just  as  little  as  home  labor  can  help  the 
social  misery  of  laborers.  Those  for  whom  home  labor 
is  recommended  as  most  useful  can  make  no  use  of  it. 
What  irony ! 

But  home  labor  cannot  improve  the  condition  of  the 
small  farmer ;  at  the  best  it  can  only  furnish  him  with  a 
few  advantages.  It  will  not,  however,  guard  him  from 
social  stunting,  for  it  is  no  remedy  for  the  disease  from 
which  the  small  farmers  suffers,  viz.,  the  impossibility 
of  competition  with  large  business  and  large  capital  in 
agricidture. 

As  little  as  the  small  farmer  can  compete  with  large 
agriculturists,  just  as  little,  or  indeed  still  less,  can  he 
appear  as  competitor  with  large  industries ;  he  cannot 
even  compete  with  the  mechanic,  for  he  can  only, 
during  a  small  part  of  the  year,  devote  his  strength  to 
home  industry ;  hence,  he  lacks  the  skill  and  practice 
peculiar  to  the  mechanic.  Then  again,  the  farmer  with 
his  home-made  articles  could  never  appear  as  producer 
for  the  market ;  by  means  of  home  industry  he  could 
only  supply  his  own  needs.  Under  undeveloped  eco- 
nomic conditions  this  producing,  mending,  and  repair- 
ing may  be  of  use  in  supplying  individual  needs ; 
under  developed  economic  conditions,  since  the  farmer 
has  ceased  to  produce  for  himself,  where  he  rather 
produces  for  the  market,  and  obtains  his  supplies  from 
the  market,  then  the  making  and  repairing  of  domestic 


20  INDUSTRIAL   INSTRUCTION. 

utensils  has  for  him  no,  or  at  best  only  a  questiona- 
ble, economic  advantage. 

Hence  home  labor  is  only  a  very  doubtful  remedy 
for  this  class;  indeed,  it  hardly  deserves  the  name  of 
such. 

For  the  artisans'  class,  home  labor  can  not  be  con- 
sidered a  social  remedy,  for  when  would  the  artisan 
pursue  home  industry?  If  business  prospers,  then  he 
has  work  enough ;  if  not,  then  the  dilettantish  pursuit 
of  another  handicraft  would  not  help  him.  Besides, 
upon  the  occasion  of  a  depression  in  business,  when  the 
products  of  a  large  trade  are  not  salable,  it  is  not 
probable  that  those  of  a  small  industry  would  be  so. 

Now,  the  small,  badly  paid  officials  of  all  kinds  only 
remain.  Of  them  it  can  be  said  that  they  have  time 
to  pursue  home  industry,  and  thus  increase  their  in- 
comes. But  in  the  cities,  and  there  the  greater  part 
of  them  live,  where  have  they  dwellings  in  which  they 
can  pursue  home  industry?  Nowhere.  And  if  the 
problem  of  dwellings  were  solved  in  favor  of  home 
labor,  where  would  be  the  establishments  which  would 
make  it  possible  for  the  laboring  officials  to  bring  their 
wares  to  the  purchaser?  They  are  yet  to  be  provided. 
Also,  the  producers  could  not  be  considered  capable  of 
competing  with  large  industries  ;  then  home  labor  must 
remain  limited  to  the  supply  of  individual  needs.  The 
direct  economic  advantage  for  the  person  so  occupied 
is  so  problematic,  that  by  it  his  position  can  in  no  way 
be  improved. 


INDUSTRIAL   INSTRUCTION.  21 

TJie  sum  of  the  matter  is,  that  home  industry,  as  a 
social  remedy,  is  Utopian, 

It  is  quite  different  to  view  the  question  from  a 
stand-point  according  to  which  it  cannot  be  under- 
stood as  home  industry,  and  cannot  be  recommended 
as  a  remedy  for  social  needs,  but  only  as  a  pleasant 
employment  in  leisure  hours  for  teachers,  scholars, 
officials,  and  others  of  the  better  situated  classes.  This 
stand-point  is  entirely  justified ;  it  is,  hoivever,  not 
economic,  hut  pedagogic.  Such  domestic  industry  has 
no  economic,  but  merely  a  moral  value.  Since  indus- 
trial instruction  could  improve  such  home  labor,  this 
would  be  a  good  reason  for  its  introduction  into  public 
instruction. 

From  the  fores^oino^  characterization  of  the  forms  of 
industrial  instruction,  it  is  furthermore  obvious  that 
we  are  not  authorized  in  opposing  industrial  instruc- 
tion to  general  education,  as  is  often  done  by  the 
opponents,  and  even  by  the  individual  advocates  of 
the  former. 

Industrial  instruction  is  in  no  way  opposed  to  gen- 
eral education,  hut  is  itself  a  means  for  securing  the 
same.  We  are  not  dealing  with  home  lahor  as  a  Uto- 
pian means  for  removing  social  calamity,  hut  loith  the 
highest  and  deepest  pedagogic  questions. 

Truly  we  can  hardly  understand  how  it  is  possible 
to  attack  industrial  instruction  with  the  commonplace 
talk  about  "  bread-winning  instruction  and  overwork 
in  the  schools  "  before  the  children  have  reached  a  suit- 


22  INDUSTRIAL   INSTRUCTION. 

able  age.  We  know  very  well  that  there  are  schools 
into  which  a  kind  of  mediaeval  branch  of  industry  has 
been  introduced,  —  schools  in  which  the  children  are 
employed  with  a  kind  of  mechanical,  spiritless  work ; 
but  to  call  labor  pursued  in  this  way  industrial  in- 
struction, and  to  present  it  as  an  objection  to  indus- 
trial instruction,  is  about  as  reasonable  as  to  present 
a  mechanically  conducted  school  of  stud}'  as  a  type 
of  schools  of  study,  and  because  of  it  to  condemn 
the  whole  institution  of  schools.  Nevertheless,  the 
opponents  of  industrial  instruction,  either  knowingly 
or  unknowingly,  practise  this  system  of  attack,  which 
seems  to  us  as  little  worthy  of  an  educated  man  as  it 
seems  uncritical  to  condemn  the  whole  system  of  kin- 
dergartens because  a  number  of  badly  conducted  kin- 
dergartens exist.  If  we  were  to  deal  so  with  all 
human  institutions,  we  should  be  obliged  to  reject 
them  all,  for  even  those  founded  upon  the  best  princi- 
ples exhibit  here  and  there  a  practical  mistake.  In 
this  way,  we  should  soon  come  to  absolute  Nihilism. 

As  regards  the  acquisition  of  bread-winning  knowl-  / 
edge  in  the  schools,  we  may  justly  wonder  that  this  ar-  ^ 
gument  should  be  brought  against  industrial  instruction 
by  schoolmen,  as  the  advocates  of  schools   for   study  i 
omit  no  opportunity  of  mentioning  their  practical  bene-^ 
fit.     We  have  never  yet  heard  it  stated  that  the  school 
does  not  and  can  not  prepare  for  life.     But  preparation 
for   life,  prosaically    expressed,  is    nothing    else   than 
bread-winning  instruction.     If,  therefore,  the  aim  were 


mDUSTRIAL   IXSTRUCTION.  23 

truly  defined  for  industrial  instruction  (which  is  sel- 
dom done,  and  indeed  never  among  educators),  viz.,  to 
teach  the  children  to  earn  their  bread,  it  would  not  be 
at  all  foreign  to  the  purpose  of  the  present  school,  but 
according  to  the  proclamation  of  all  schoolmen,  and  a 
purely  legitimate  definition  of  its  peculiar  aim.  A 
large  number  of  school  laws  declare  emphatically  that 
the  aim  of  the  public  school  is  education  for  civic  use- 
fulness and  preparation  for  life.  Unless  this  aim  of  the 
public  school  is  denied,  then  industrial  instruction  can 
not  be  turned  off  with  the  misleading  phrase  (especialljj^'' 
used  in  pedagogic  circles)  "  bread-winning  instructioor?^ 
But  ivitJwut  putting  one's  self  in  opposition  to  its  ivhole 
historical  development^  to  the  classic  educators,  and  to 
the  popular  understanding  of  the  purpose  of  the  public 
school,  this  aim  cannot  be  denied.  If  it  should  be  stated 
that  the  school  does  not  enable  the  child  to  earn  a  liv- 
ing, and  can  in  no  way  fit  him  for  life,  how  can  the 
great  sacrifice  which  the  people  make  for  the  school  be 
justified  ?  However,  not  only  men  of  business  say  that 
the  present  school  does  not  fulfil  its  purpose,  and 
is  worse  than  nothing  as  a  preparation  for  life,  but, 
among  all  the  people,  the  opinion  is  spread  abroad  that 
to  the  great  mass  of  its  adherents  the  school  is  of  very 
little  worth.  From  this  view,  can  we  wonder  that  the 
people  have  so  little  sympathy  with  the  school,  and 
even  upon  occasion  show  themselves  hostile  to  it? 
Those  who  have  to  struo-o'le  with  the  cares  and  needs  of 
life,  as  at  present  large  masses  of  the  people  must,  are 


24  INDUSTRIAL    IXSTRUCTION. 

not  inclined  to  bear  sacrifices  for  institutions  whose 
benefits  are  not  clearly  manifest. 

We  repeat,  not  only  the  laity  and  school  enemies  are 
led  to  doubt  the  benefits  of  the  present  school  for  the 
life  of  the  people,  but  professional  people,  and  warm, 
indeed  the  warmest  friends  of  the  school.  Hence,  from 
the  educational  side,  it  is  fitting  that  we  should  test  the 
means  which  claim  to  prepare  the  children  for  life  bet- 
ter than  those  which  are  at  present  employed.  The 
matter  is  too  important  to  be  satisfied  with  catch- 
words ;  we  must  keep  to  the  point. 

Furthermore,  by  confusing  industrial  with  profes- 
sional instruction,  and  mistaking  one  for  the  other,  the 
opponents  of  industrial  education  make  a  great  mistake. 
Now,  it  is  perfectly  clear  that  the  two  branches  are 
widely  separated,  industrial  bearing  about  the  same 
relation  to  professional  instruction  that  elementary  in- 
struction bears  to  instruction  in  a  special  science,  e.  g., 
in  Ophthalmy.  Nevertheless,  if  one  be  taken  for  the 
other,  then  it  is  evident  that  wrong  judgment  and 
entirely  irrelevant  argument  must  arise ;  and  this  is 
actually  the  case.  Because  of  this  confounding  and 
confusion,  it  is  almost  comical  to  see  how  the  opponents 
go  out  of  their  way  to  show  that  industrial  instruction 
can  not  make  a  skilful  and  ready  mechanic ;  that  it  is 
too  early ;  that  it  anticipates  an  instruction  which  be- 
longs to  the  workshop  ;  that  because  it  is  too  early,  it 
causes  weariness  of  the  school ;  that  with  children  it 
must  degenerate  into  play,  as  the  military  play,  for  the 


INDUSTRIAL    INSTRUCTION.  25 

training  of  youth  (cadet  system),  and  hence  wearies 
and  disgusts  them,  etc.^ 

Certainly,  these  arguments  are-only  correct  under  the 
supposition  that  industrial  and  professional  instruction 
are  the  same  thing ;  but  as  this  supposition  is  false, 
they,  in  general  and  particular,  amount  to  nothing. 
They  jprove  nothing  against  industrial  instruction^  hut 
only  a^gainstpreynature  professional  training .  Industria I 
instruction^  hoioever^  is  not  intended  to  he  professional 
instruction^  hut  only  a  general  preparation  for  practical 
training ^  just  as  school  instruction  is  a  general  prepara- 
tion for  theoretical  training.  This,  however,  is  not  its 
principal  aim;  its  principal  aim  is  the  harmonious 
development  of  the  future  man, 

"Hand  labor  is  good ;  it  is,  indeed,  for  the  child  in- 
dispensable, as  it  constitutes  a  part  of  its  nature.  Its 
effect  is  moralizing,  its  usefulness  indisputable.  The 
introduction  of  this  labor  into  the  school  is  an  ideal 
which  it  is  impossible  to  attain ;  although  it  would 
educate  the  poor  child  against  greed  and  cupidity,  and 
preserve  him  from  vagrancy  and  beggary,  and  in  view 
of  his  future  calling  in  life  would  be  of  great  benefit  to 
him." 

One  would  think  this  must  have  been  said  by  an 
advocate  of  industrial  instruction  ;  but  this  would  be 
a  mistake.  It  was  indeed  said  by  an  opponent  who 
has    gone  so    far   in   his    arguments  against  industrial 

^  Switzerland,  Teachers'  Journal,  1884. 


26  INDUSTRIAL    INSTRUCTION. 


instruction  as  to  assert  that  it  develops  the  productive 
and  material  side  of  the  child,  to  the  injury  of  the 
qualities  of  mind,  heart,  and  character,  and  that  the 
new  burden  of  industrial  instruction  would,  from  the 
double  stand-point  of  knowledge  and  morals, — yes, 
indeed,  morals^  —  be  an  injury  to  the  quality  of  school- 
work.  The  last  sentence  is  oracular  in  its  obscurity ; 
however,  if  it  have  any  meaning,  the  writer  wishes  to 
intimate  that  knowledge  and  morals  may  be  injured 
by  industrial  instruction.  Now,  if  we  collect  the 
statements  of  this  opponent,  we  have  the  following 
complete  contradictions,  which,  according  to  Goethe, 
are    equally  mysterious  for  the  sage  and  the  fool :  — 

"  Hand  labor  is  for  the  child  indispensable ;  but  its  f 
introduction  into  the  school,  not  its  exclusive  dominion/ 
there,  develops  the  child  on  its  productive  and  material! 
side,  to  the  injury  of  the  qualities  of  mind,  heart,  and\ 
character.  Hand  labor  constitutes  apart  of  child  nature; 
but  its  introduction  into  the  school,  not  the  exclusive 
pursuit  of  it,  develops  the  child  from  its  productive 
and  material  side,  to  the  injury  of  the  qualities  of  rhind, 
heart,  and  character.  The  introduction  of  hand  labor 
into  the  school  is  an  ideal  whose  attainment  is  impossi- 
ble ;  but  the  introduction  of  hand  labor  into  the  school 
develops  the  child  from  the  productive  side,  to  the  in- 
jury of  mind,  heart,  and  character.  Hand  labor  has  a 
moralizing  effect ;  but  the  introduction  of  hand  labor 
into  the  school  develops  the  child  from  the  productive 
and  material  side  to  the  injury  of  the  qualities  of  mind, 


INDUSTRIAL   IXSTRUCTION.  27 

Jieart,  and  character,  and  to  the  injury  of  his  hnoicledge 
and  morals.  The  benefit  —  benefit  entirely  general, 
then  moral  benefits  not  excluded  —  of  hand  labor  is 
mdispensable ;  by  its  introduction  into  the  school,  the 
poor  children  would  be  preserved  frotn  the  evil  influ- 
ences of  cupidity ,  vagrancy ,  and  beggary ;  but  its  in- 
troduction into  the  school  injures  the  qualities  of  mind, 
heart,  and  character  as  well  as  oi  i\iQ  piqnls'  morals  and 
hioivledge.  In  regard  to  the  future  choice  of  a  pro- 
fession, hand  labor  would  be  of  the  s^reatest  advantao:e 
to  the  poor  child ;  but  the  introduction  of  hand  labor 
into  the  school  would  result  in  a  superficial  training  of 
the  young  laborer  for  his  future  profession.^'' 

But  it  appears  that  hand  labor  has  all  these  evil, 
even  dangerous  results  only  in  the  school,  for  the 
worthy  reporter  at  the  Synod  in  Courtlery  (Bernese 
Jura)  thinks  that  school  workshops,  established  by 
private  individuals,  if  they  were  conducted  with  a  sep- 
arate programme,  pursued  side  by  side  with  that  of 
the  public  school,  would  do  good  service. 

"  By  the  practical  working  out  of  what  is  con- 
ceived, the  observation  will  be  sharpened  and  strength- 
ened." 

"By  means  of  representation,  construction,  the  reg- 
ular way  for  the  creative  instinct  in  the  child  will  be 
pointed  out.  In  this  way  the  child  secures  an  inner 
satisfaction  which  must  definitely  influence  its  dis- 
position and  character."  "  Joy  in  self-activity  awakens  \ 
pleasure  in  laborCk    By  one's  own  work,  one  learns  to 


28  INDUSTRIAL    INSTRUCTIOX. 

value  the  labor  of  others,  and  in  this  way  morality 
is  promoted." 

Again,  this  is  not  said  by  an  advocate  but  by  an 
opponent  of  industrial  instruction,  who,  by  "  practical 
working  out  of  what  is  conceived,"  and  by  "represen- 
tation and  construction,"  really  means  hand  labor.  A 
firm  friend  of  hand  labor  could  hardly  assert  more  in 
its  favor  than  this  opponent  has  expressed.  There, 
without  if  or  but,  the  disciplinary^  educative,  and 
moralizing  value  of  hand  labor  is  acknowledged. 

Nevertheless,  industrial  instruction  is  called  a 
"  doubtful  experiment,"  which,  on  account  of  its  "  prob- 
lematic advantage,"  cannot  be  included  in  the  number 
of  obligatory  school  studies. 

What  logic  !  It  stands  quite  on  a  level  with  that  of 
the  opponents  already  mentioned.  By  labor,  observa- 
tion will  be  promoted,  the  instinct  of  activity  regu- 
lated, the  child  inwardly  satisfied,  made  happy,  dis- 
position and  character  trained,  pleasure  in  work 
aroused,  and  morality  promoted ;  but  all  this  is  of  no 
benefit.  Industrial  instruction  is  a  doubtful  experi- 
ment, and  its  advantage  problematic. 

Every  one  will  expect  that  such  an  opponent  would 
exclude  all  forms  and  conditions  of  industrial  instruc- 
tion from  the  schools.  But  this  is  not  the  case.  It  is 
not  only  not  rejected,  but  it  is  even  demanded. 

"  In  the  elementary  .schools  (from  seven  to  ten 
years)  a  series  of  the  Froebel  occupations  should  be 
pursued,  and  in  the  grades  of  the  real  and  secondary 


^ 


INDUSTRIAL    INSTRUCTION.  29 

school  (from  ten  to  fifteen  years)  no  hindrances  are 
to  be  phiced  in  the  way  of  the  application  of  manual 
activity  for  the  promotion  of  mental  instruction." 

Yet  what  but  hand  labor  are  the  Froebel  occupations  ? 
And  from  the  expression,  "  manual  activity,"  what  but 
hand  labor  can  be  understood  ? 

This  opponent  recommends  what  he  opposes.  What 
a  contradiction  ! 

"What  is  the  benefit  arising  from  a  one-sided  cultiva- 
tion of  the  hand  ?  "  cries  out  the  same  opponent.  Now, 
no  one,  not  even  the  earnest  advocate  of  home  industry, 
demands  a  one-sided  cultivation  of  the  hand,  but  all 
wish  to  develop  the  mind  as  well.  In  accomplishing 
the  latter,  however,  the  hand  is  not  to  be  neglected. 
We  repeat  that  since  the  time  of  Diesterweg,  the  point 
at  issue  in  the  struo^ole  a«:ainst  industrial  instruction 
has  been  based  upon  the  false  supposition  that  indus- 
trial instruction  consists  in  the  teaching  of  some  kind 
of  trade,  or  at  most  of  some  single  manual  occupation. 
When  will  this  error,  which  has  prevented  so  many  from 
perceiving  the  truth,  disappear  ? 


30  INDUSTRIAL   INSTRUCTION. 


CHAPTEE  III. 

THE  ECONOMIC   OBJECTIONS  TO  INDUSTRIAL 
INSTRUCTION. 

I.     COMPETITION. 

One  objection  to  industrial  instruction  is,  that  in 
many  trades  it  creates  a  dangerous  competition.  To 
his  complaints  against  the  competition  of  prisons, 
houses  of  correction,  and  orphan  asylums,  the  mechanic 
would  soon  add  one  about  the  competition  of  the  schools. 

These  objections  are  quite  correct,  and  we  have  already 
referred  to  the  over-estimate  of  the  economic  advantages 
of  industrial  instruction  ;  but  they  are  only  right  under 
the  supposition  that  industrial  instruction  in  the  school 
would  be  pursued  as  factory  labor,  and  that  the  public 
school  would  become  a  manufactory  for  the  production 
of  playthings,  b7mshes,  straw  and  paper  wares,  etc. 
Now,  is  that  really  to  be  feared  ?  Certainly  not.  School- 

'  We  say  economic,  and  not  politico-economic,  because  the  expres- 
sion "  political  economy  "  is  unsuitable.  No  educated  people  manage 
their  economic  affairs  for  themselves,  but  they  have  economic  rela- 
tions with  many  other  nations,  and  no  educated  nation  of  the  present 
time  has  yet  brouglit  the  trade  and  distribution  of  labor  products  to 
an  economic  basis ;  tliat  is,  to  a  conscious  organization  of  labor  con- 
ducted according  to  certain  principles. 


INDUSTRIAL   IXSTRUCTIOX.  31 

houses  will  not  become  factories  ;  rather,  factories  willi 
become  school-houses.  Whoever  knows  anything  of 
the  movement  resrardino^  children's  labor  in  factories 
within  the  last  thirty  years  will  be  freed  from  all 
anxiety  regarding  the  possibility  of  child  labor  in  the 
school  being  conducted  after  the  manner  of  factory 
labor.  Those  only  who  are  entirely  ignorant  regarding 
the  o:reat  movement  ao^ainst  children's  labor,  and  who 
know  no  form  of  industrial  instruction  except  that  of 
Klauson  Cass,  and  that  in  a  form  which  misrepresents 
it  and  degrades  it  into  factory  labor,  can  have  any  fear 
of  danger  of  competition.  As  long  as  factory  labor  is 
not  transplanted  into  the  school ;  as  long  as  no  branch 
of  industry  apart  from  the  aims  of  the  school  be  pur- 
sued, provided,  rather,  that  industrial  instruction  be 
pursued  with  special  reference  to  the  aims  of  education 
and  instruction,  it  can  no  more  create  competition  with 
trades  than  the  industrial  instruction  of  girls  has  here- 
tofore caused  competition  with  dress-makers. 

Competition  can  only  arise  in  a  case  where  one  is  in 
a  condition  to  produce  more  cheaply.  Now  it  is  clear 
(and  by  the  opponents  of  industrial  education  it  is 
made  a  prominent  point)  that  a  school  which  remains 
a  school,  and  does  not  become  a  ijictory,  cannot  pro- 
duce so  cheaply  as  a  large,  well-ordered  establishment 
which  has  the  advantage  of  machinery  and  division  of 
labor.  This  point  is  so  clear  and  indisputable,  that 
it  requires  no  further  discussion.  If,  however,  it  be 
asserted   that   industrial   instruction  will   give   rise  to 


32  INDUSTRIAL    INSTRUCTION. 

competition  in  many   trades,  such   an   assertion   rests 
on  a  false  basis. 
It  is  premised  :  — 

1.  That  industrial  instruction  in  the  school  be  pur- 
sued as  a  kind  of  factory  labor.  Year  in,  year  out, 
in  some  school,  some  special  article  will  be  manufac- 
tured :  perhaps  in  one  school,  brooms ;  in  another, 
straw  rugs  ;  in  a  third,  pasteboard  boxes  ;  in  a  fourth, 
wooden  plates,  etc.  Or  again,  that  in  all  the  schools, 
throughout  the  whole  year,  the  same  articles  be  con- 
structed by  all  the  children. 

This  supposition  is  entirely  wrong.  No  one  in  his 
right  mind  would  say  a  word  in  favor  of  such  a  gen- 
eral arrangement  of  industrial  instruction,  and  not  a 
teacher  could  be  found  for  it.  Such  instruction  would 
be  in  no  way  educative,  but,  like  factory  labor,  would 
be  stupefying  in  its  effects. 

2.  Let  it  be  assumed  that  the  state  and  community 
would  furnish  material,  tools,  teachers,  and  places  to 
work  for  such  industrial  instruction,  and  not  concern 
themselves  hereafter  about  the  labor  products  in  the 
mass.  These  would  rather  be  sold  pri^tely, — by 
whom  ?  Whether  by  pupil  or  teacher,  no  one  knows 
rightly,  and  indee(^  only  at  a  price  equal  to  the  value 
of  the  materials  used. 

That  this  supposition  lacks  foundation  must  be  clear 
to  every  one.  We  consider  it  an  insult  to  a  state  and 
community  of  organized  people  (to  which  we  teachers 
belong)  to  believe  that  they  would  be  so  short-sighted 


INDUSTRIAL   INSTRUCTION.  33 

as  Dot  to  be  concerned  with  the  mass  of  labor  products 
of  the  institutions  of  a  state  or  community,  or  to  under- 
sell them,  or  to  give  them  up  to  any  kind  of  specu- 
lators. 

These  are  simply  inconceivable  assumptions.  No 
one  sells  privately  labor  products  in  bulli.  For  this,  a 
large  market,  indeed,  the  maiket  of  the  world,  is  needed. 
The  products  of  wholesale  industries  cannot  be  under- 
sold by  an  institution  belonging  to  a  state  or  commu- 
nity, or  given  over  to  speculators,  without  general 
indignation  being  raised  against  it  by  the  injured  party. 
Wholesale  labor  products  could  not,  in  any  economi- 
cally developed  state,  be  furnished  at  the  cost  of  the 
materials  used,  for  this  would  lead  to  domestic  bank- 
ruptcy. 

A  notice  in  Otto  Salomon's  "Labor  and  Public 
School,"  upon  the  labor  school  connected  with  the 
public  school  at  Wenersborg,  on  Wener  Lake  in 
Sweden,  wherein  it  is  stated  that  the  articles  made 
w^ill  be  sold  privately  and  easily  disposed  of,  because 
they  will  be  estimated  at  no  more  than  the  value  of 
the  materials  used,  is  greatly  exaggerated,  and  has 
been  simply  transported  into  countries  with  developed 
economic  conditions.  But  whoever  has  read  this  notice 
knows  that  there  labor  products,  not  in  bulk,  but 
separately,  are  dealt  with.  But  the  principal  point  is, 
Sweden  is  a  country  w^hose  economic  development  is  at 
least  thirty  years  behind  that  of  Germany  and  Switzer- 
land.    If  w^e  make  use  of  the  manifestations  in  Swedish 


34  INDUSTRIAL   INSTRUCTION. 

economic  conditions  as  conclusions  for  Germany  and 
Switzerland,  we  must  be  led  into  absurdities. 

If  a  state  and  community  once  furnish  for  industrial 
instruction  teachers,  shops,  tools,  and  materials,  then 
they  will  concern  themselves  with  the  labor  products, 
and  make  arrangements  for  their  market  and  disposal 
as  well.  Since  in  the  first  place,  pedagogical  aims  are 
to  be  reached  by  industrial  instruction,  and  surely  will 
be  pursued  in  its  interests,  so  a  part  of  the  labor  prod- 
ucts, indeed  much  the  greater  part,  will  find  disposal 
in  the  interests  of  instruction.  The  other  part  can  be 
ofiered  in  warehouses,  and  sold  at  market  price?.  No 
sensible  administration  of  a  state  or  community,  in  order 
to  compete  with  a  state  or  community,  will  go  below 
market  prices.  Also,  in  order  to  avoid  the  opposition 
of  small  trades  against  the  institution,  the  private  labor 
schools  should  not  sell  more  cheaply.  One  would  not 
be  tempted,  however,  to  sell  under  the  market  price,  for 
the  production  of  the  things  would  be  much  dearer  than 
the  products  of  trade,  or  of  the  manufactory.  It  has 
never  yet  been  said  that  in  the  schools  for  spinning, 
weaving,  carving,  watch-making,  the  products  could  be 
made  for  less,  and  were  sold  at  a  lower  price. 

If  one  wishes  to  honor  labor,  then  each  article  may 
bear  the  name  of  the  maker,  and  the  parents  of  the 
little  artist  may  have  the  right  of  precedence  in  the 
shops  where  the  products  are  sold.  If  the  articles  of 
his  manufacture  were  really  of  service  in  the  family, 
what  a  justifiable   pride  the  child  would  experience  ! 


INDUSTRIAL    INSTRUCTION.  35 

That  would  be  an  inducement  to  do  good  work.  But 
one  could  go  still  further  with  this  inducement  to  honor 
labor,  by  having  a  sum  recorded  quarterly,  according  to 
the  proportion  of  work  done  by  each  pupil,  in  a  merit 
book,  which  would  serve  as  a  kind  of  testimonial.  At 
the  time  of  his  leaving  school,  this  amount,  with  interest, 
could  be  paid  to  the  pupil,  and  might  serve  him  as  a 
means  for  securins:  further  education.  Such  an  arran<j:e- 
ment  would  be  suitable  for  public  as  well  as  private 
institutions,  and  indeed  is  already  in  operation  in  the 
garden  labor  school  in  Weimar.^  By  such  a  plan, 
the  school  would  become  a  truly  educational  savings 
bank,  and  an  economic  means  of  education  would  be 
furnished  the  pupil,  who  by  it  would  save  for  the  bank 
what  he  himself  had  earned,  and  not  what  he  without 
,  labor  had  received  from  his  parents. 

II.       SPECULATION  .- 

The  opponents^  of  industrial  instruction  say  that 
because  of  the  speculation  involved  in  it,  this  branch 
of  instruction  is  in  danger  of  furnishing  a  temptation 
to  take  undue  advantage  of  children's  strength.  They 
speak  of  industrial  instruction  itself  as  if  it  were  a 
means  for  utilizino^  child-labor  on  a  laiixe  scale,  or 
as  if  it  were  an  industrial  pursuit  by  children. 
Now,  we  have  already  shown  the  entire  incorrectness 

*  J.  Biihlmaim,  A  School  Journey  in  Germany.     Zurich,  Magazine, 
1873. 
^  German  Industrial  Joui-nal. 


36  INDUSTRIAL    INSTRUCTION. 

of  the  supposition  that,  any  manufiicturing  "  business  " 
by  child-labor  can  be  carried  on  in  the  school.  In 
such  a  case,  industrial  instruction  would  have  to 
become  children's  labor  in  school  factories.  But 
care  is  taken  that  this  shall  not  happen.  Even  in 
this  respect,  the  trees  do  not  reach  the  skies.  The 
beautiful  time  of  child-labor  in  factories  is  greatly 
on  the  decline,  and  the  humane  world  will  soon  have 
achieved  its  complete  overthrow. 

As  we  know,  speculation  deals  with  things  subject  to 
strong  fluctuations  in  price,  Avhich  yield  more  than  the 
usual  profits.  But  it  must  wait  long  before  industrial 
instruction — even  if  pursued  entirely  in  the  sense  of 
home  industry  —  would  yield  the  high  profits  of  spec- 
ulation. It  must  wait  till  doomsda}',  for,  according  to 
all  human  insight  and  foresight,  this  time  will  never 
come.  Industrial  instruction  will  realize  just  about  as 
little  profit  for  speculators  as  does  mental  instruction. 
Since  speculators  have  so  wide  a  field  for  their  activity, 
it  will  never  enter  their  minds  to  choose  industrial 
instruction  as  an  object.  They  have  still  a  chance  for 
l)rofit  in  grain  and  cattle,  wool  and  cotton,  silk  and 
hemp,  railroads  and  steamboats,  houses  and  lands, 
paper  and  rags. 

III.      DIMINUTION    OF   THE    NUMBER    OF   PURCHASERS. 

An  objection  is  made  to  industrial  instruction  on 
the  ground  tliat  in  a  short  time  we  should  have  nine 
tenths   of    the   population    producers   and   one   tenth 


INDUSTRIAL    INSTRUCTION.  37 

purchasers.  With  the  almost  chronic  failures  ia  busi- 
ness, and  the  limited  purchasing  capacity  of  the  peo- 
ple, such  an  objection  weighs  heavily,  and  with  the 
credulous  multitude  its  efiect  never  fails.  The  posi- 
tion, however,  is  entirely  untenable,  and  only  arises 
from  a  total  io^norance  of  economic  relations.  Settino^ 
the  producer  over  against  the  purchaser  is  a  novelty 
in  national,  or  rather  in  political  economy.  Up  to  the 
present  time  we  never  knew  that  producers  cease  to 
be  purchasers.  In  this  connection,  it  was  only  known 
that  under  the  control  of  moneyed  production,  through 
the  constantly  increasing  application  of  machinery,  the 
number  of  producers,  and  at  the  same  time  not  the 
number  of  consumers,  but  their  ability  to  buy,  was 
diminished.  Apart  from  the  teachings  of  national 
economy,  it  is  intelligible  to  common-sense  that  an 
increasing  number  of  producers  is  in  no  way  synony- 
mous with  a  decreasing  number  of  purchasers.  On 
the  contrary,  if  all  have  work,  then  all  can  buy,  and 
business  flourishes. 

IV.       MISCONCEPTION    OF   THE    UTILITY     OF   DIVISION    OF 

LABOR. 

The  opponents  say  that  industrial  instruction  will 
lead  to  a  misconception  of  the  utility  of  division  of 
labor,  and  hence  to  a  retroii^ression  in  civilization. 
What  a  mightii  charge!  It  means  nothing  less  than  that 
industrial  instruction  is  inimical  to  improvement,  to 
civilization.     Let  us  at  once  remember  that  all  true 


38  INDUSTRIAL    INSTRUCTION. 

progress  has  always  been  declared  opposed  to  civili- 
zation, so  that  this  accusation  is  in  no  way  new.  Just 
as  little  is  it  new  that  the  charge  is  a  simple  assertion 
with;)ut  proof. 

It  is  hard  to  believe  that  any  one  could  seriously 
assert  that  industrial  instruction  might  lead  to  retro- 
gression in  civilization.  Like  Crusoe  on  his  desert 
island,  every  man  would  begin  again  to  supply  the 
whole  circle  of  his  needs.  Machines  would  become 
rusty,  railroads  and  telegraph  lines  would  tumble  to 
pieces,  steamboats  w^ould  be  replaced  by  dugouts,  the 
breech-loader  would  be  supplanted  by  bow  and  sling, 
while  international  commerce,  travel,  discovery,  inves- 
tigation, and  humanitarian  effort  would  give  place  to 
the  splendid  still-life  of  the  cave-dwellers,  or  to  the 
state  economy  of  the  Lacustrians,  as  yet  untouched  by 
the  craze  of  stock  speculation.  Indeed,  if  we  begin 
to  misunderstand  the  advantages  of  division  of  labor, 
we  cannot  foresee  where  we  shall  stop. 

But  because  in  his  youth  a  man  has  learned  to  guide 
the  plane,  the  saw,  the  file,  the  drawing  or  the  carving 
knife,  is  it  inevitable  that  he  will  fail  to  understand 
this  advantage  ?  Has  it  ever  happened  that  those  men 
who  have  learned  half  a  dozen  kinds  of  handicrafts,  or, 
driven  by  necessity,  have  been  obliged  to  use  them, 
have  misunderstood  the  advantages  of  division  of  lal)or, 
or  become  Crusoes?  Such  people  are  just  the  ones  to 
value  division  of  lal)or,  because  they  know  how  to 
appreciate   more   than   one   kind   of  labor.      Because 


INDUSTRIAL    INSTRUCTION.  39 

in  our  youth  we  learn  several  kinds  of  hand  labor, 
shall  we  not  continue  to  be  modern  men,  with  all  our 
strong  desires  for  the  gratification  of  our  highly  de- 
veloped social  needs  ? 

Those  who  really  fear  that  industrial  instruction  wil' 
lead  to  a  misconception  of  the  advantages  of  divisioi 
of  labor,  appear  to  live  in  the  exerci.-^e  of  a  very  artless 
and  simple  faith  m  the  power  of  society  to  set  aside  at 
pleasure  the  laws  of  economic  development.  Men  can 
do  this  as  little  as  they  can  rise  above  the  laws  of  na- 
ture. Both  are  inflexible,  and  sway  with  iron  rub. 
AVhile,  however,  man  has  made  some  progress  in  the 
control  of  nature's  laws,  he  has  hardly  made  a  begin- 
ning in  the  control  of  economic  laws  whose  governicg 
power  is  in  proportion  to  their  immovability  ;  so  much 
the  more  unfounded  is  the  fear  of  a  misconception  of 
the  utility  of  division  of  labor  as  one  of  t!ie  most  effica- 
cious economic  laws.  We  might  as  reasonably  doubt 
the  benefit  of  the  sun's  heat  on  account  of  steam  and 
electricity.  Division  of  labor  is  not  a  hypothetical 
expression,  to  be  accepted  or  rejected  at  pleasure.  No  ! 
it  is  a  power  which,  like  a  power  of  nature,  gains 
recognition  in  the  economic  world.  Division  of  labor 
has  swept  away  feudalism,  and  called  civil  society  into 
life.  It  is  a  power  which  will  bring  civil  society  in  its 
turn  to  the  grave,  and  will  create  a  new  society,  based 
upon  organized   manufacturing  principles. 

It  is  hardly  necessary,  then,  for  us  to  be  anxious  to 
advocate  the  recognition  of  such  a  powerful  force. 


40  INDUSTRIAL    INSTRUCTION. 

A  discussion  of  the  great  disadvantages  of  division 
of  labor  for  the  mental  and  physical  development  of 
workingmen  appears  to  be  a  much  more  necessary 
task.  Indeed,  in  manufactories,  division  of  lal)or  is 
carried  so  far,  that  a  single  workman  can  no  longer 
construct  a  whole  article,  but  only  its  thirtieth,  fiftieth, 
one  hundredth  part,  or  perhaps  the  third  or  tenth  part 
of  a  part. 

It  is  only  necessary  to  refer  to  watch-making,  in 
which  nearly  every  single  part  is  constructed  in  special 
factories,  and  the  labor  of  every  part  in  each  factory  is 
again  divided  among  many  hands.  The  laborer  no 
longer  makes  a  part  of  a  watch,  but  only  a  fraction  of 
a  part.  In  all  branches  of  large  industry  the  same 
principle  of  division  of  labor  is  observed.  By  this 
means,  labor  has  become  vastly  profitable,  and  la])or 
products  astonishingly  complete  ;  but  the  laborer  has 
become  part  of  a  machine,  and  the  work  has  lost  all  its 
spirit.  "  Subdivision  of  labor  is  the  murder  of  a  peo- 
ple," says  an  English  writer.  Said  Adam  Smith,  in 
17  GO;  "A  man  who  spends  his  whole  life  in  the  per- 
formance of  small,  simple  operations  has  no  oppor- 
tunity to  exercise  his  understanding.  He  generally 
becomes  as  stupid  and  as  ignorant  as  it  is  possil)le  for 
a  human  creature  to  be."  Yet  at  that  time,  division 
of  labor,  compared  with  its  present  state,  had  but  a 
very  limited  development. 

Would  it  not  be  a  meritorious  work  to  instruct  our 
youth  in  the  construction  of  whole  articles,  and  thus 


INDUSTRIAL   INSTRUCTION.  41 

overcome  the  stupefying  influence  of  division  of  labor, 
whose  advantages  our  present  civilization  cannot  and 
will  not  dispense  with?  Does  not  wisdom,  as  well  as 
duty,  command  us  to  give  those  thousands  who  may 
be  condemned  to  spend  their  lives  in  the  tread-mill 
course  on  simple,  or,  perhaps,  upon  a  single  spiritless 
operation,  an  insight  into  the  attractive,  satisfying,  and 
educative  side  of  labor? 


42  INDUSTRIAL   INSTRUCTION, 


CHAPTER   IV. 

THE    PLAUSIBLE     AND    LEGAL     OBJECTIONS    TO    INDUS- 
TRIAL INSTRUCTION. 

I.      THE    child's    INCLINATION    FOR    ACTIVITY     IS     SUFFI- 
CIENTLY  CULTIVATED    IN    THE    FAMILY. 

A  CORRECT  solution  of  the  problem  as  to  the  neces- 
sity for  industrial  instruction  in  public  education  is 
only  possible  on  the  ground  of  an  exact  knowledge  of 
social  relations  and  their  influence  upon  fiimily  life. 
The  knowledge  of  these  relations  is,  however,  to  edu- 
cated people  mostly  a  tem^a  incognita,  because  they 
trouble  themselves  but  little  with  the  study  of  political 
economy,  and  still  less  with  that  branch  of  it  which 
treats  of  social  relations.  This  is  explicable  and  ex- 
cusable on  the  ground  that  this  study  has  no  direct 
practical  benefit,  and  on  every  side  is  attended  with 
difficulties. 

Out  of  this  ignorance  of  economic  social  relations 
arises  the  lamentation,  over  the  decline  of  the  beautiful 
customs  of  the  Middle  Ages,  according  to  which  the 
son  learned  mostly  from  the  father  his  own  art  or  handi- 
craft ;  and  the  daughter,  even  in  the  noble  fiunilies,  was 
instructed  by  the   mother  in  the   management  of  the 


INDUSTRIAL    INSTRUCTION.  43 

household.  With  the  same  reason,  we  might  lament  the 
decline  of  knighthood  of  Latin  and  Catechism  schools, 
of  the  guilds,  and  indeed  of  all  medicTval  conditions. 
All  these  institutions  were  merely  the  expression  of  me- 
diaeval social  relations,  in  the  widest  sense  of  the  word. 
These  lamented  customs  in  particular  were  nothing  but 
the  result  of  the  manner  of  labor  in  mediaeval  times, 
which,  being  confined  to  small  trades,  was  intended  for 
the  circle  of  the  home,  the  village,  or  the  tov/n,  and 
through  which  (^.  e.,  manner  of  labor)  the  products 
were  strictly  regulated.  In  proporticm  as  the  mediaeval 
system  of  production  disappeared,  and  made  way  for 
modern  methods,  so  the  custom  of  the  son  learning  a 
handicraft  from  his  father  declined.  In  the  Middle 
Ages,  the  son  could  very  well  learn  a  trade  from  his 
father,  because  the  father  generally  pursued  indepen- 
dently some  trade  or  profession ;  but  at  present,  among 
the  majority  of  fathers,  this  is  no  longer  the  case.  In 
the  Middle  Ages,  the  son  learned  a  handicraft  from  the 
father,  which  was  desirable,  as  it  offered  a  certain 
means  of  existence  and  a  respectable  social  position, 
and  because  it  was  often  somewhat  difficult  to  secure  a 
footing  in  any  other  trade  or  profession.  In  no  case 
was  a  change  so  advantageous  as  the  simple  continua- 
tion of  the  fraternal  employment.  In  consequence  of 
division  of  labor  and  the  introduction  of  machinery  in 
large  manufactories,  all  this  is  changed  to-day.  No  one 
who  appreciates  existing  economic  relations  will  pipe  a 
dirge  over  the  decline  of  mediaeval  customs  resulting 


44  INDUSTRIAL    INSTRUCTION. 

from  media3V{\l  systems  of  labor,  but  through  the  legis- 
lature aud  the  laws  of  the  country  he  will  seek  to  se- 
cure to  public  education  conditions  adapted  to  existing 
economic  relations.  There  are,  it  is  true,  people  who 
believe  in  ^he  wisdom  of  returning  to  mediaeval  systems 
of  labor,  and  w^ho  will  support  efforts  in  this  direction, 
but  the  folly  and  impossibility  of  carrying  out  such  an 
idea  are  too  patent  to  need  a  word  of  discouragement. 

Although  individual  opponents  of  industrial  instruc- 
tion themselves  acknowledge  that  domestic  instruction 
fails  to  awaken  the  child's  love  for  labor,  yet  they  as- 
sert that  the  instruction  of  children  in  labor  does  not 
belong  to  the  school,  but  on  principle  to  the  family. 
Unfortunately,  they  forget  to  give  the  chief  reasons 
for  this,  their  principal  demand.  Perhaps  this,  also, 
would  have  its  difficulties,  and  very  probably  it  would 
appear  that  the  arguments  which  relegate  manual 
instruction  to  the  family  would  show  more  conclu- 
sively that  the  mental  instruction  of  the  children  is 
also  the  business  of  the  family,  rather  than  of  the 
state.  In  this  way,  reasons  for  the  abolition  of  the 
public  school  might  be  furnished,  and  the  darling 
wish  of  certain  people  might  approach  a  little  nearer 
realization. 

Here,  also,  we  have  contradiction  and  inconsistency, 
for  the  same  men  who  assert  that  industrial  instruction 
is  the  work  of  the  family,  demand  of  the  school  that  it 
shall  introduce  the  child  to  the  real  world,  and  shall 
elevate  and  spiritualize  labor,  and  thus  awaken  pleasure 


INDUSTRIAL   INSTRUCTION.  45 

in  it.  If  industrial  instruction  becomes  on  principle 
the  aftair  of  the  family,  how  is  the  school  to  spiritualize 
labor  ?  By  what  better  means  than  by  labor  can  one  be 
introduced  into  the  real  world?  How  can  labor  be 
better  elevated  than  by  being  introduced  into  the 
school,  and  how  can  it  be  better  spiritualized  than  by 
being  united  with  theoretical  instruction  ?  Every  other 
elevation  of  labor  must  lead  to  inactive  enthusiasm, 
which  is,  of  course,  much  more  comfortable  than  action, 
and  any  other  spiritualization  of  w^orkmust,  on  the  part 
of  the  teacher,  remain  mere  dead  verbiage,  and  must 
lead  the  pupil  to  idle  chatter.  If  they  have  babbled 
about  labor,  the  children  will  believe  they  have  really 
worked. 

Individual  opponents  to  industrial  instruction  assert 
that  in  a  well-regulated  household  there  is  no  lack  of 
suitable  work  for  children.  Hence,  the  housekeeping 
of  a  large  class  of  factory  laborers  and  that  of  a  great 
part  of  the  laborers  in  home  industry,  as  well  as  that 
of  artisans,  is  called  disorderly ;  for,  as  a  fact,  in  those 
households,  suitable  employment  for  the  children  does 
fail,  and  can  not  in  any  way  be  provided.  If  a  man 
does  not  know,  or  if  he  ignores  social  relations,  to  what 
false  conclusions  may  he  be  led  !  If  factory  laborers 
are  constantly  from  home,  how  can  they  in  any  suitable 
manner  find  employment  for  their  children  ?  How  can 
the  laborers  in  many  branches  of  home  industry  suitably 
employ  their  children  at  home?  For  example,  in  weav- 
ing, when  all  the  winding  and  spooling  of  yarn  are  done 


46  INDUSTRIAL   INSTRUCTION. 

by  machinery  in  tlie  factories?  And  where  this  is  not 
the  case,  can  all  the  children  be  employed  in  winding 
and  spooling,  or  is  winding  and  spoohng  such  suitable 
employment  for  children  of  all  ages  and  capacities  that 
the  opponents  of  industrial  instruction  would  choose 
it  for  their  own  children?  Since  artisans  mast  spend 
almost  every  waking  moment  at  their  own  work,  how 
can  they  employ  the  chiklren  in  suitable  labor?  The 
discharge  of  household  duties  does  not  suffice  to  provide 
suitable  employment  for  all  the  children,  and  is  not 
adapted  to  the  needs  of  all.  But  why  do  we  speak  only 
of  the  so-called  lower  classes  in  society  ?  What  suitable 
domestic  employment  can  be  provided  for  the  children 
of  the  higher  classes,  since  among  them  the  household 
labor  is  performed  almost  entirely  by  servants?  Con- 
sistency must  oblige  the  opponents  of  industrial  instruc- 
tion to  consider  the  households  of  the  his/her  classes 
also  disorderly  and  ill-regulated.  We  do  not  take  this 
ground,  but,  in  justice  to  the  working  classes,  it  de- 
serves at  least  a  passing  mention. 

While  a  portion  of  the  opponents  of  industrial  instruc- 
tion themselves  acknowledge  that  domestic  education 
does  not  awaken  in  the  children  a  luve  of  labor,  others 
oppose  industrial  instruction,  in  that  they  show  that 
under  normal  conditions,  if  the  children  are  trained  at  a 
sufficiently  early  age,  labor  in  the  family  does  awaken  a 
pleasure  in  work.  Under  one  form  or  another,  thi:? 
objection  is  made  by  all  the  opponents  of  industrial 
instruction.     Individual   opponents,   infected   with  the 


INDUSTRIAL  INSTRUCTION.  47 

universal  social  reform  idea,  show  that  already  the 
working  classes  labor  too  much  rather  than  too  little, 
and,  besides  this,  are  very  badly  fed. 

This  last  proposition  is  at  any  rate  correct.  The 
hiboring  classes  are  not  at  the  same  time  the  enjoying 
classes,  although  Christian  teaching  declares  that  "he 
who  does  not  work,  shall  not  eat " ;  but  it  is  a  mistake 
to  say  that  under  normal  conditions  the  work  in  the"^ 
family  awakens  a  pleasure  in  labor. 

The  normal,  i.  e.,  the  usual  case  is  rather  that  the( 
family  represses  the  child's  inclination  for  activity,  or  ^ 
at  best  cultivates  it  in  a  one-sided  manner. 

We  do  not  on  this  account  complain  of  the  family, 
for  we  also  consider  the  family  of  the  present  day  as  a 
product  of  existing  social  and  economic  conditions  which 
lie  beyond  the  province  of  the  individual  family.  We 
merely  assert  facts. 

What  is  life  ?  We  do  not  know  ;  we  know  only  its 
appearances.  According  to  those  appearances,  how- 
ever, life  is  motion, — motion  of  muscles  and  nerves. 
What  is  child  life?  Quickest  movement,  because 
quickest  development.  Hence  the  irrepressible  instinct 
of  children  towards  movement  and  activity ;  hence 
their  happiness  if  they  can  employ  themselves,  and 
their  unhappiness  if  they  can  not.  Naturally  this  in- 
stinctive activity  is  as  yet  entirely  unregulated  and 
purposeless  ;  according  to  the  conditions  of  the  child's 
surroundings,  it  may  become  a  creative  or  a  destructive 
impulse. 


48  INDUSTRIAL   INSTRUCTION. 

The  view  of  life,  according  to  which  mankind  is  bad 
from  youth  up,  presupposes  an  inborn  destructive 
Instinct.  We  assert,  however,  that  among  norpial 
human  beings  there  is  no  inborn  destructive  impulse, 
but  rather  an  inherent  instinct  for  activity,  which,  if  it 
be  not  educated  into  a  creative  power,  easily  takes  the 
direction  of  a  destructive  influence,  Avhich  is  merely 
activity  with  a  negative  result. 

For  the  rest,  many  and  various  pleasing  and  praise- 
worthy impulses  of  the  childish  soul  lie  at  the  bottom 
of  what  are  usually  termed  destructive  instincts.  The 
child  does  not  love  movement  merely  as  the  expres- 
sion of  its  own  strength  and  life,  but  he  loves  it  in 
things.  Hence  his  pleasure  in  everything  that  has 
motion,  and  his  effort  to  produce  motion  in  motion- 
less and  inanimate  objects.  For  this  reason,  the  child 
has  a  much  earlier  interest  in  plants  than  in  stones, 
and  a  still  earlier  interest  in  animals  than  in  plants. 
Hence  his  efforts  to  make  things  walk,  fall  down,  get 
up,  fly,  etc.  But  our  beautiful  playthings  do  not 
stand  the  child's  experiments ;  they  are  destroyed. 
The  child  destroys  them,  however,  not  for  the  mere 
pleasure  of  destroying,  but  because  of  his  pleasure 
in  motion.  Because  the  child  loves  movement,  it 
also  loves  change,  which  indeed  is  only  a  form  of 
movement,  and  this  also  the  child  loves  not  only  in 
his  own  person,  but  in  things.  Objects  must  change  ; 
they  shall  not  remain  as  they  are.  In  his  efforts  to  ; 
procure  a  change,  that  is,  to  make  something  new,  the  ' 


INDUSTRIAL   INSTRUCTION.  49 

child  tears  the  legs  off  the  doll,  removes  the  wheels  | 
from  the  wagon,  and  kneads  the  wax  figures  out  ofi 
shape.  The  instinct  of  work  and  construction,  being 
yet  entirely  raw,  demands  employment  and  guidance, 
and  destroys  because  it  cannot  create,  or  because  the 
unsuitable  playthings  can  bear  no  change  nor  recon- 
struction. For  early  childhood,  those  playthings  are- 
the  best  which  admit  of  the  most  changes,  while  those* 
with  which  the  child  can  do  nothing  without  injury  to 
himself  or  them  are  comparatively  worthless. 

Finally,  the  child  destroys  things  because  the  out- 
side is  not  sufficient  to  satisfy ;  he  must  see  the  inside, 
must  learn  the  nature  of  things.  The  instinct  of 
knowledo^e  and  investis^ation  is  beo^innino:  to  move  him. 

A  normal  child,  whose  instinct  of  activity  is  in  some 
degree  under  control,  will  never  destroy  for  the  mere 
pleasure  of  destroying,  but  always  from  some  higher 
motive.  Hence  this  tendency  towards  destruction  must 
not  be  suppressed,  but  trained,  and  it  will  return  to 
mankind  fruit  a  thousand-fold. 

As  little  as  we  acknowledge  an  inborn  destructive 
tendency  among  normal  human  beings,  so  little  do  we 
admit  an  inborn  tendency  to  laziness.  Laziness  (i.  e., 
a  dread  of  every  kind  of  physical  and  mental  exertion) 
contradicts  the  laws  of  physiology.  It  is  a  physico-^ 
pathologic  condition,  and  menaces  life  itself.  But  lazi- 
ness, as  a  dislike  for  useful  manual  labor,  arises  from 
the  suppression  and  non-improvement  of  the  tendency  to 
activity  in  children,  and  from  a  lack  of  respect  for 
4 


50  INDUSTRIAL   INSTRUCTION. 

manual  labor  in  the  practice  of  domestic  and  social 
life.  As  John  Stuart  Mill  says  :  So  long  as  the  results 
of  labor  are  divided  in  almost  completely  reversed  rela- 
tions, and  the  greatest  share  falls  to  those  who  have 
never  worked  at  all,  the  next  greatest  to  those  whose 
work  is  for  the  most  part  merely  nominal,  and  so  on, 
until  at  last  the  most  fatiguing  and  exhaustive  physical 
labor  cannot  with  certainty  be  depended  upon  even  to 
gain  the  most  common  necessaries  of  life,  —  so  long  as 
this  relation  between  labor  and  the  distribution  of  prop- 
erty prevails  practically  in  social  life,  so  long  will  peo- 
ple seek  to  avoid  labor.  Laziness,  as  a  dread  of  the 
labor  which  benefits  society,  is  therefore  a  social  patho- 
logic manifestation.  However,  at  present,  we  are  only 
interested  in  the  cause  of  the  malady,  which  has  its 
origin  in  the  non-employment  and  non-improvement  of 
the  child's  natural  inclination  for  activity. 

In  regard  to  this  cause  of  idleness,  it  is  truly  surpris- 
ing that  laziness  does  not  exist  to  a  greater  extent  in 
our  social  life,  for  as  a  result  of  existing  social  rela- 
tions, the  childish  tendency  to  activity  is  almost  entirely 
suppressed,  or  at  least  has  received  so  little  guidance 
in  the  direction  of  creation,  that  it  is  surprising  that 
men  arc  not  more  destructive  than  they  are.  How  is 
it  with  the  education  of  children,  in  the  greatest 
number  of  cases,  among  factory  laborers,  small  farmers, 
and  the  workers  in  small  handicrafts?  Both  father 
and  mother  must  pursue  their  trades.  There  is  hardly 
time  for  attention  to  the  most  necessary  duties,  to  say 


INDUSTRIAL   INSTRUCTION.  51 

nothing  of  education.  This  explains  the  fact  that  mor-^ 
tahty  among  the  children  of  the  poorer  classes  is  three  ( 
times  as  orreat  as  amons:  those  of  the  richer.  Under 
such  conditions,  it  is  plainly  useless  to  talk  of  the  right 
guidance  and  development  of  the  instinct  of  activity 
and  the  proper  emploj^ment  of  children.  Who  has 
time  for  these  things?  The  children  are  left  almost 
entirely  to  themselves. 

Even  if  there  were  time,  who  has  the  necessary  in- 
telligence and  skill?  In  the  public  schools,  the  girls 
receive  no  instruction  concerning  the  education  of 
children,  and  schools  for  the  higher  development  of 
women  are  as  yet  a  beautiful  dream. 

[True  of  Germany,  and  to  an  extent  of  Switzerland.] 

Finally,  even  if  parents  possessed  time  and  intelli- 
gence sufficient  for  the  right  guidance  and  satisfying  of 
the  child's  instinct  for  activity,  in  ninety-nine  cases  out 
of  a  hundred,  means,  material,  opportunity,  and  place 
would  be  wanting. 

Supposing  the  employment  makes  a  noise,  then  the 
papa,  the  next-room  lodger,  or  the  tenants  below  will 
be  disturbed,  or  the  landlord  will  not  allow  it.  Sup- 
posing it  makes  no  noise,  but  perhaps  some  untidiness, 
then  on  account  of  the  room  and  furniture  it  cannot  be 
allowed.  For  the  pur:«uit  of  certam employments,  place 
and  light  are  necessary,  but  in  small  rooms  both  of 
these  are  wanting.  Older  children  need  tools  and 
materials ;  they  cost  money,  and  cannot  always  l)e 
procured.     In    the  open  air  it  is  as   bad    as   in   the 


52  INDUSTRIAL    INSTRUCTION. 

house,  for  there  is  no  place  where  children  can  em- 
ploy themselves. 

In  most  cities  we  have  beautiful  promenades,  but  in 
most  cities  we  have  not  a  single  place  for  children's 
plays  or  employments.  Sit  on  the  bench !  Do  not 
run  on  the  grass  !  Gather  no  grass  or  flowers  !  Don't 
touch  the  sand  or  stones  !  These  are  the  commands 
which  must  constantly  be  given  to  children  in  the 
beautiful,  well-kept  promenades.  What  tiresome 
promenades  for  children !  They  can  make  nothing, 
can  do  nothing ;  and  they  would  so  gladly  make  a 
bill  of  sand,  dig  a  hole,  or  lay  out  a  garden  !  Every- 
where the  hindrances  described  here  to  suitable  em- 
ployment for  children  meet  us ;  not  only  among  the 
lower,  but  in  the  middle  and  higher  classes. 

Where  is  the  merchant's,  the  oflicial's,  or  the  pro- 
fessor's family  in  which  all  conditions  for  the  guidance 
and  gratification  of  the  childish  inclination  for  activity 
are  possible?  Almost  always,  intelligence  and  capabil- 
ity, frequently  time  and  not  infrequently  opportunity 
and  place,  are  wanting.  Everywhere,  wherever  our 
changeful  life  has  led  us,  we  have  found  a  lack  of 
suitable  employment  for  children.  Are  not  the  many 
expensive  playthings,  with  which  children  can  do  abso- 
lutely nothing,  a  proof  of  the  lack  of  suitable  employ- 
ment ?  Or  is  the  literature  for  children  from  seven  to 
twelve  years  of  age  a  suitable  employment  for  them  ? 
Novel-readinc:  children  of  this  ac^e  are  the  result  of  a-n 
entirely  arbitrary,  unnatural  education.     The  best  chil- 


INDUSTRIAL   INSTRUCTION.  53 

dren's  literature  that  wo  have  is  far  from  being  good  ^ 
enough  to  be  considered  suitable  employment  for  chil-^ ' 
dren. 

Be  still !  Go  out !  Take  a  book  !  Learn  somethinof  I 
In  even  good  families  these  are  the  commands  by 
which  unemployed  children  are  guided. 

If,  perhaps,  the  children  demand  some  employment, 
they  are  met  with,  You  can't  have  that !  Leave  me  in 
peace  !     I  must  work  !     I  have  no  time  ! 

In  this  way  is  the  instinct  of  activity  suppressed 
(especially  for  the  first  six  years),  or  left  entirely  un- 
satisfied and  unguided. 

What  is  the  result?  The  children  become  inert  and 
unsteady,  and  acquire  a  hundred  bad  habits  and  faults. 
Nearly  all  wrong  habits  and  faults  of  children  are 
owing  to  lack  of  suitable  occupation.  In  school,  the( 
best  means  of  discipline  is  to  employ  the  children  suit-^ 
ably.  The  teacher  who  understands  how  to  employ 
the  pupil,  and  by  the  employment  to  keep  him  inter- 
ested, has  hardly  any  need  to  use  any  other  means  of 
discipline ;  while  the  one  who  does  not  understand  this 
art,  is  unable  with  all  his  severity  to  curb  the  unman- 
ageable, idle,  stupid  scamps. 

Employ  the  children  suitably ^  i.  e.,  according  to  their 
powers  and  inclinations,  and  hundreds  of  pedagogical 
arts  and  tricks  for  preventing  and  subduing  moral  delin- 
quencies ivill  be  unnecessary. 

That  the  children  of  the  laboring  classes  work  too 
much  is  quite  true  ;  it  is  only  wrong  to  assert  this  fact 


54  INDUSTRIAL   INSTRUCTION. 

a&  a  proof  that  in  the  family  the  pleasure  in  labor  is 
sufficiently  awakened.  Do  we  not  know  that  in  the 
case  of  too  much  work,  the  pleasure  is  changed  into 
aversion?  As  we  have  just  shown,  in  these  children 
the  instinct  of  activity  is  stifled  before  they  are  fitted 
for  special  labor.  Is  the  same  monotonous  labor, 
which,  year  in,  year  out,  the  family  is  able  to  furnish, 
according  to  the  capacity  and  needs  of  the  child? 
Certainly  not !  It  can  awaken  no  pleasure,  but  must 
create  dislike.  Then  how  many  families  are  capable 
of  furnishing  their  children  regular  employment? 

And  if,  as  an  opponent  of  industrial  instruction 
mentions,  it  happens  that  an  excess  of  work  is  united 
with  want,  will  that  create  pleasure  in  labor  ?  Cer- 
tainhj  not.  Besides,  domestic  labor  lacks  one  of  the 
most  niiportant  elements  of  pleasure,  viz.,  the  societT/]^ 
of  laborers  of  the  same  age.  It  lacks  also  the  attractive 
method  and  theory  which  would  make  it  significant 
and  interesting.  The  family  does  not  understand  the 
art  of  instruction ;  the  instruction  does  not  proceed 
methodically  from  the  near  to  the  remote,  from  the 
simple  to  the  complex,  hence  the  work  becomes  to 
the  children  either  distasteful,  because  the  labor  is 
beyond  their  strength,  or  it  is  tedious,  because  it 
affords  too  little  activity.  For  everything  which  ex- 
ceeds our  physical  or  psychical  powers  creates  dis- 
like, while  everything  that  does  not  demand  suflScient 
activity  becomes  tedious ;  we  must  avoid  both  ex- 
tremes.    Without  theory,  labor  degenerates  into  me- 


INDUSTRIAL    INSTRUCTION.  55 

chanical,  uncomprehended,  uninteresting  activity;  for 
one    is  only  interested   in  what   he   understands,  and  / 
one    is   elevated  by  labor  only  when  he  is   conscious// 
that  he  accomplishes  it  according  to  underlying  lawsj 
Finally,  domestic  labor,  because  of  its  one-sidedness, 
does  not  require  the  exercise  of  heart,  taste,  and  im- 
agination.    These  must  be  disregarded,  because  there 
is  merely   an   economic  and  not   a   pedagogical    aim. 
For  this  important  reason,  labor  in  the  family  cannot 
be  sufficiently  attractive  for  the  children. 

Labor  in  the  family  can,  therefore,  aiualx^en  little  or 
no  delight,  but,  on  the  contrary,  it  often  creates  abun- 
dant disgust.  Instead  of  satisfying  the  child's  incli- 
nation for  activity,  it  much  more  frequently  suppresses 
it,  or  not  infrequently  misguides  it;  and  in  consequence 
of  our  social  conditions,  it  is7iot  at  all  capable  of  rightly 
guiding  or  educating. 

Granting,  however,  that  the  home  does  develop  and 
train  the  child's  inclination  for  activity,  still  we  cannot 
dispense  with  labor  in  the  schools,  because  it  belongs 
to  the  harmonious  development  of  mankind,  and  is  an 
important  means  of  training  and  education. 

II.       THE     FATHER    SHOULD     INSTRUCT     THE     SON    IN    HIS 
HANDICRAFT. 

This  objection  is  raised  against  industrial  instruction. 
They  say  the  father  understands  his  handicraft  and  its 
needs,  hence  he  will  be  the  best  teacher  for  his  son. 
This  argument  entirely  misses  its  aim,  for  industrial 


56  INDUSTRIAL    INSTRUCTION. 

instruction  in  the  public  school  does  not  and  can  not 
imply  instruction  in  any  particular  kind  of  handicraft. 
Industrial  instruction  and  professional  or  trade  instruc- 
tion are  here  confused.  The  objection  in  no  way 
touches  industrial  instruction,  but  meets  the  opponent 
of  industrial  instruction  who  at  the  same  time  is  an 
earnest  advocate  of  special  trade  instruction.  If,  in- 
deed, the  father  were  best  fitted  to  instruct  the  son  in 
his  handicraft,  of  what  use  is  departmental  training? 
Why  is  there  a  call  for  school  workshops,  professional 
museums,  and  other  institutions  of  this  nature?  The 
question,  indeed,  of  professional  training  is  answered 
in  the  simplest  manner. 

Yes,  if  it  only  were.  But  it  is  not,  for  a  proposi- 
tion which  presupposes  the  practice  of  mediaeval  small 
trades,  will  not  solve  either  the  question  of  profes- 
sional training  or  of  industrial  instruction.  Diester- 
weg,  who  in  1851  raised  a  similar  objection  to  industrial 
instruction,  would  hardly  advance  it  now,  if  he  saw  how 
the  manufactories  have  increased  and  small  trades  have 
diminished.  During  the  last  thirty  years  the  indus- 
trial development  of  Germany  has  made  such  progress 
that  she  has  outstripped  France,  and  to-day  is  abreast 
with  England.  Now,  if,  notwithstanding  the  com- 
pletely changed  economic  conditions,  the  same  objec- 
tion should  be  advanced,  this  only  proves  that  not  only 
the  Bourbons,  but  other  people  as  well,  possess  the 
peculiarity  of  forgetting  nothing,  and  also  of  learning 
nothing. 


INDUSTRIAL   INSTRUCTION.  57 

In  the  foregoing,  we  have  explained  why  the  son  can 
not  learn  a  handicraft  from  the  father,  and  why  he  does 
not,  even  if  he  could.  We  refer  to  what  has  previously 
been  said.     Here  we  make  only  a  few  remarks. 

How  often  does  the  son  learn  a  handicraft  from  the 
father?  Eather  seldom.  And  if  he  does  learn  it,  is 
the  father  always  the  best  instructor?     As  a  rule,  no. 

Besides,  does  the  mechanic  understand  the  theory  of 
labor?  Usually  not.  Then,  what  is  the  nature  of  his 
instruction?  A  mechanical  imitation  of  a  pattern  or 
copy,  similar  to  former  methods  of  teaching  and  learn- 
ino-  writino^. 

And  finally,  if  the  father  always  instructed  the  son 
in  his  handicraft,  to  what  should  we  come? 

Directly  to  the  condition  of  caste,  and  of  Chinese 
civilization. 

Verily,  a  brilliant  prospect ! 

III.       COMPULSORY   INDUSTRIAL    INSTRUCTION   WOULD    IN- 
TERFERE   WITH    THE    parents'    RIGHTS. 

Industrial  instruction  should  be  left  to  the  free  judg- 
ment of  parents,  for  if  it  should  be  made  compulsory, 
it  would  be  an  illegal  interference  with  parental  rights, 
and  an  encroachment  upon  their  personal  freedom.  So 
say  the  opponents  of  industrial  instruction.  Although 
Diesterweg  himself  raised  this  objection,  it  is  neverthe- 
less untenable,  for  if  the  state  (as  a  totality  of  all  the 
citizens)  fuliils  the  duties  which  it  is  impossible  for 
individuals  to  discharge,  there  can  be  no  infringement 


58  INDUSTEIAL    INSTRUCTION, 

of  personal  rights.  We  have,  however,  shown  that 
the  family  is  not  in  a  condition  to  properly  educate 
the  children  in  labor.  But,  admitting  that  the  family 
may  be  capable  of  instructing  the  children,  it  could 
not  be  considered  an  infringement  upon  parental  rights, 
if  a  majority  of  the  citizens  should  find  that  the  state 
could  better  perform  these  important  tasks  than  each 
individual  separately,  and  if  the  majority  should  decide 
that  the  state  should  undertake  this  department  of 
education,  as  well  as  theoretical  instruction.  Besides, 
we  may  be  perfectly  at  rest.  The  objection  to  com- 
pulsory industrial  instruction,  on  the  ground  of  inter- 
ference with  personal  freedom,  would  be  much  fainter 
than  that  which  has  been  and  is  still  being  advanced 
against  mental  instruction  in  our  present  schools.  In 
any  case,  it  would  not  be  raised  by  the  laborer  and 
mechanic,  in  whose  name  the  schoolmen  at  present 
make  it  effective.  They  would  be  heartily  glad  if 
their  children  were  employed  with  hand  labor  in  the 
schools,  and  so  better  prepared  for  life  than  they  are 
or  can  be  by  existing  school  instruction.  We  have 
not  yet  learned  that  the  introduction  of  industrial  in- 
struction for  girls  has  in  any  place  raised  such  a  storm 
as  has  upon  occasion  raged  against  the  introduction  of 
a  new  method  of  teaching  religion,  history,  or  natural 
science.  Just  as  little  will  industrial  instruction  for  boys 
raise  a  storm.  As  to  the  necessity  for  labor  for  all 
mankind,  there  can  be  no  difference  of  opinion ;  while 
in  matters  of  religion,  history,  philosophy,  systems  of 


INDUSTRIAL    INSTRUCTION.  59 

teaching,  etc.,  the  field  for  discussion  and  disagree- 
nient  is  abundantly  large.  Industrial  instruction  is 
throughout  a  neutral  territory,  in  which  no  father's  pri- 
vate convictions  will  be  attacked,  except  it  may  be  on 
the  ground  that  his  son  is  too  good  for  labor.  AYhether 
society  is  obliged  to  conform  to  such  a  barbarous 
opinion  may  be  decided  without  consulting  the  promi- 
nent publicist. 

We  are  accustomed  to  hearinsr  charo^es  as^ainst  the 
school,  on  the  ground  of  arbitrary  encroachments  upon 
parental  rights,  either  from  people  who  are  opponents 
of  the  modern  state,  or  from  those  who  understand 
nothing  of  the  necessary  foundations  of  a  common- 
wealth, or  from  those  egotists  who  derive  benefit  from 
a  commonwealth,  but  are  w^illing  to  sacrifice  nothing 
for  it.  It  would  be,  however,  extremely  surprising 
and  directly  against  the  interests  of  the  teacher's  posi- 
tion, as  well  as  against  the  interests  of  the  school,  if 
the  advocates  of  the  school  should  play  this  trump 
against  industrial  instruction.  Is  it  not  plain  that  it 
can  with  neater  rio'ht  be  advanced  ao^amst  theoretic 
instruction?  This  objection  is  really  an  old  rusty 
weapon  brought  out  of  a  mediaeval  armory.  Indus- 
trial instruction  can  be  left  to  the  judgment  of  the 
parents  as  little  as  can  theoretic  instruction. 

Why  are  all  instruction  and  education  not  left  to 
the  choice  of  the  family  ? 

Certainly  for  the  following  general  reasons  :  — 

1.     Because  the  parents  have  for  this  work  neither 


60  INDUSTRIAL   mSTRUCTION. 

time,  desire,  skill,  means,  nor  place,  and  because  it 
would  be  a  waste  of  human  strength  and  a  pedagogic 
crime  to  educate  each  child  alone.  For  the  education 
and  training  of  each  child  one  man  would  be  needed, 
and  also,  one  man  would  be  required  to  educate 
another. 

We  have,  however,  shown  that  parents  lack  time, 
desire,  skill,  means,  and  place  for  the  employment  of 
their  children ;  and  it  is  clear  that  it  would  be  in 
the  highest  degree  unprofitable  and  unpedagogic,  even 
quite  impossible,  to  suitably  employ  each  child  sepa- 
rately. With  the  same  outlay  of  time,  strength,  and 
means  required  for  the  employment  of  one,  twenty 
can  be  employed ;  and  besides,  children  are  really  the 
best  educators  for  each  other. 

2.  Because  the  highest  interests  of  society  demand 
that  every  man  shall  possess  a  certain  amount  of 
mental  training,  as  well  as  those  notions  and  ideas 
which  are  necessary  for  the  preservation  of  society. 
A  common  social  life  without  a  certain  standard  of 
education  for  all  the  members,  and  without  a  common 
world  of  ideas  and  thoughts,  is  quite  impossible. 
Every  society  in  which  the  differences  in  education 
between  its  individual  members  are  too  great,  falls  to 
pieces  ;  and  every  society  in  which  the  mass  of  com- 
mon ideas  and  thoughts  becomes  too  small,  or  where 
among  individuals  the  ideas  and  thoughts  are  too 
different,  must  be  dissolved. 

Modern  society,  which  does  not  exist  by  conquest 


INDUSTRIAL   INSTRUCTION.  61 

and  plunder,  but  is  based  upon  labor,  demands  for 
its  own  interests  that  every  one  shall  possess  a  certain 
amount  of  practical  education  in  labor,  and  shall  have 
a  oreneral  understandino:  of  the  whole  world  of  ideas 
and  thoughts  which  are  based  upon  labor,  because 
those  ideas  and  thoughts  resulting  from  hand  labor  are 
most  important  and  indispensable  for  the  successful 
social  life  of  mankind.  Hence,  society  must  manage 
that  each  of  its  members  shall  be  able  to  acquire  those 
ideas  and  opinions.  Its  interests  demand  this.  For 
this  reason,  industrial  instruction  cannot  be  left  to  the 
judgment  of  the  family ;  it  must  become  the  business 
of  the  state,  and  must  be  compulsory  for  all.  This  is 
the  principle.  How  this  principle  is  to  be  transposed 
in  the  practice,  is  another  question.  We  are  not  so 
unreasonable  as  to  advocate  at  present  the  introduc- 
tion of  industrial  instruction  as  a  practical  demand  of 
politics,  since  at  present  teachers  lack  the  power, 
facilities,  will,  and  intelligence  necessary  for  the  ac- 
complishment of  such  a  measure.  But  what  we 
advance  as  a  requirement  of  the  present  is,  that  the 
educational  authorities  shall  raise,  support,  and  for- 
ward efforts  for  the  promotion  of  the  demands  of 
industrial  instruction  by  means  of  the  state. 

If  the  state  does  this,  it  only  promotes  its  own 
interests,  for  it  is  entirely  wrong  to  interpret  the  ex- 
pression ''  the  interest  of  the  state  "  in  education  as 
applicable  only  to  purely  mental  culture,  especially  as 
purely  mental  culture  is  a  nonentity,  and  man  is  not  to 


62  INDUSTRIAL   INSTRUCTION. 

be  divided  by  pedagogy  into  body  and  spirit,  but  to 
be  comprehended  as  a  unit.  Besides,  pedagogic  state 
practice  has  long  ago  overthrown  the  position  that  it 
must  concern  itself  merely  with  the  mental  cultivation 
of  its  members,  since  it  has  long  ago  introduced  gym- 
nastics. The  principle,  if  indeed  it  ever  existed,  has 
been  violated,  and  we  cannot  ask  that  the  practice  be 
continued.  Gymnastics  serve  essentially  for  physical 
development.  Now,  if  industrial  instruction  be  de- 
manded as  an  extended  means  to  the  same  end,  it  can 
not  be  opposed  with  a  reference  to  recognized  and 
uniform  principles,  but  must  be  contested  with  plaus- 
ible reasons. 

"  Since  one  aim  is  set  before  the  whole  state,  then 
all  its  members  must  necessarily  have  one  and  the 
same  education.  The  care  of  this  education  must  be 
a  common  one,  and  cannot  be  left  to  individuals."  So 
said  Aristotle.  He  did  not  say  it,  however,  in  regard 
to  mental  education,  and,  indeed,  it  is  satisfactorily 
known  that  the  Greeks  bestowed  even  greater  atten- 
tion upon  physical  than  upon  mental  development. 

But  the  state  has  not  merely  such  an  interest  in 
industrial  instruction  that  it  could  w^ithout  injury  get 
rid  of  it,  but  it  has  the  interest  of  self-preservation, 
which  is  indeed  synonymous  with  the  duty  of  self- 
preservation.  Furthermore,  it  is  the  duty  of  the 
state  to  furnish  an  education  in  labor  to  all  those 
who,  beyond  their  physical  and  mental  powers,  pos 
sess  no  means  of  supporting  existence.     For  the  sup 


INDUSTEIAL   INSTRUCTION.  63 

port  of  our  opinions,  we  can  cite  an  authority  (if, 
indeed,  authorities  are  necessary),  to  whom  no  greater 
can  le  opposed,  viz.,  Pestalozzi.  In  his  views  upon 
industry,  education,  and  politics,  he  expresses  him- 
self as  follows :  "  Property  is  an  artificial  creation  of 
society  to  elevate  and  advance  the  welfare  of  our  race, 
by  means  of  the  greater  productiveness  of  the  earth. ^ 
As  the  result  of  natural,  necessary  arrangements  for 
its  security,  this  property  has  made  the  great  majority 
of  mankind  propertyless  ;  and  the  greater  and  more 
refined  the  artificial  conditions  of  the  human  race 
become,  which  arise  and  must  arise  for  the  security 
of  property  and  all  prerogatives  and  enjoyments  of  its 
acquisition  and  possession,  so  much  the  more  must 
the  number  of  poor  and  propertyless  men  in  the 
country  increase,  and  so  much  the  more  certainly  out 
of  these  conditions  must  arise  a  state  of  afftiirs  in 
which  nothing  for  the  guarantee  and  preservation  of 
human  existence  remains  to  the  great  majority  of  the 
people  but  the  application  of  their  physical  and  men- 
tal powers,  upon  which  they  must  depend  as  their 
only  means  of  self-preservation.  But  this  resource, 
from  its  nature,  remains  without  beneficial  results  to 
the  propertyless  man,  so  long  as  it  is  not  accom- 
panied with  arrangements  and  means  that  may  secure 
to  him  a  certain  degree  of  cultivation  of  his  powers 
and  talents,  which   stands   in   satisfactory  relation   to 

^  Pestalozzi's  Works,  Vol.  IX.,  p.  100. 


64  INDUSTRIAL   INSTRUCTION. 

that  artificial  power  and  skill  which  are  necessary  in 
satisfying  the  essential  needs  of  human  existence. 

"  So  long  as  this  is  not  the  case,  so  long  as  this  com- 
mon dependence  upon  his  powers  and  talents  is  not 
accompanied  by  such  arrangements  for  the  develop- 
ment and  cultivation  of  the  same,  then  it  is  itself  illu- 
sory and  deceptive.  The  powers  and  talents  of  human 
nature  are  transformed  into  skill  only  by  means  of  a 
sufficient  development  and  cultivation  calculated  to  cre- 
ate capability  for  man  in  a  social  condition,  which  may 
be  used  and  applied  in  such  a  way  that  its  results  may 
be  regarded  by  the  propertyless  man  as  a  compensa- 
tion for  the  lost  shares  of  the  profits  of  the  earth.  His 
claim  to  a  sufficient  means  for  the  development  and  cul- 
tivation of  these  jjowers  is  therefore  indisputably  his 
civil  and  social  rigid.  It  is  his  only  visible  means  for 
securing  the  essential  needs  of  his  human  existence, 
and  the  only  way  by  which,  in  harmony  with  the  public 
right  of  the  civilized  world,  he  can  penetrate  into  the 
art  and  means  for  the  great  world-movement  of  self- 
preservation  [struggle  for  existence],  and  of  the  gen- 
eral manifestation  of  the  well-being  of  our  race.  On 
the  wide  sea  of  this  world-movement,  it  is  the  only 
point  at  which  he  is  allowed  to  throw  out  his  hook,  and 
to  try  whether  in  the  million-fold  riches  swimming 
around  him  some  small  fish  may  perhaps  desire  and 
bite  at  his  dead  bait. 

"  Meanwhile  the  claim  of  the  propertyless  man  to  social 
aid  for  tite  develop7nent  of  his  powers  and  talents  is  riot 


INDUSTRIAL    INSTRUCTION.  G5 

only  for  himself  an  indisputabhj  social  life;  it  is  quite 
as  indispensable  for  the  man  of  property.  Without 
the  recognition  of  this  rigid,  the  artificial  condition  of 
civilization  itself  has  no  just  and  natural  basis." 

It  might  be  objected  that  iu  the  foregoing,  Pesta- 
lozzi  does  not  really  demand  that  the  state  secure 
training  in  labor ;  but  there  can  be  no  doubt  that,  by 
the  training  of  the  physical  powers  in  skill,  Pestalozzi 
understands  trainins:  in  labor.  All  Pestalozzi's  work 
goes  to  show  that  he  has  never  res^arded  the  education 
of  man  as  merely  mental  training,  but  as  training  of 
the  whole  man.  The  one-sided  mental  traininoj  of  our 
present  pedagogy  is  entirely  foreign  to  his  compre- 
hension of  the  subject.  Again  and  again  he  demanded 
harmonious  development,  and  side  by  side  with  moral 
and  mental  training  constantly  emphasized  training  in 
labor  and  art.  To  him,  harmonious  education  without 
education  in  labor  was  inconceivable.  In  the  most 
bitter  and  drastic  manner,  he  complains  that  European 
governments  have  done  nothing  for  the  industrial  edu- 
cation of  the  people.  He  says  :  "  It  is  true  that  what 
no  father  would  fail  to  do  for  his  son,  what  no  master 
would  fail  to  do  for  his  apprentice,  the  government 
has  failed  to  do  for  its  people.  In  regard  to  the  train- 
ing in  skill  which  a  man  needs  in  order  to  attain  an 
inner  satisfaction  by  the  oood  management  of  his  essen- 
tial affairs,  no  European  nation  enjoys  even  a  trace  of 
public  or  general  government  influence  ;  there  is  no 
public  training  in  skilfulness  except  for  manslaughter, 

5 


66  INDUSTRIAL    INSTRUCTION. 

in  behalf  of  which  the  military  organization  devours 
everything  that  is  due  to  the  people,  or  rather  that 
the  people  owe  to  themselves."  ^ 

Here  Pestalozzi  very  definitely  demands  that  the 
state  shall  undertake  to  provide  for  the  education  of 
the  people  in  labor.  He  will  not  have  this  provision 
limited  to  the  lower  orders,  but  will  have  it  extended 
to  all  the  people.  The  legal  foundation  of  this  de- 
mand is  especially  interesting,  for  the  reason  that  the 
previous  development  of  private  fortunes,  as  well  as 
investigations  into  original  property  by  Laveley,^ 
have  proved  Pestalozzi  to  be  right  in  his  comprehen- 
sion of  the  rights  of  property.  On  this  account,  Pes- 
talozzi would,  more  than  ever  before,  demand  state 
education  in  labor. 

IV.       THE    RURAL     ROPULATION    REQUIRE    NO    INDUSTRIAL 
EDUCATION. 

The  opponents  of  industrial  instruction  raise  the  above 
objection,  because  they  do  not  or  will  not  know  that  it  is 
not  only  a  counterbalance  for  one-sided  mental-  culture 
in  youthful  education,  but  it  deals  with  mental  devel- 
opment and  character  building.  They  say,  "  Where 
children  have  a  long  distance  to  go  to  school,  and  where 
work  about  the  farm  is  to  be  performed,  there  is  no 
danger  of  excessive  mental  development  and  physical 

'  How  Gertrude  teaches  her  Children,  from  the  original  text. 
Pub.  Karl  Iliedel,  Vienna,  1887. 

*  Property,  and  its  Primitive  Forms.     Paris,  G.  Balliere,  1874. 


INDUSTKIAL   INSTRUCTION.  67 

stunting;  at  the  most  this  danger  only  exists  in  cities.^ 
Furthermore,  what  benefit  will  it  be  to  the  farmer 
children  to  learn  to  plane  and  glue,  to  turn  and  carve? 
They  do  not  need  it  at  all,  and  later,  cannot  use  it. 
What  they  need,  however,  is  to  thrash,  mow,  sow, 
and  plough,  and  this  they  will  not  learn  by  industrial 
instruction." 

Both  objections  leave  untouched  the  educational  value 
of  industrial  instruction  for  mind  and  character  build- 
ing, and  neither  disputes  its  worth  as  a  counterbalance 
for  a  one-sided  mental  development.  They  are,  there- 
fore, plausible  objections,  without  any  fundamental 
signification.     And  what  plausibility  it  is  ! 

The  first  indirectly  admits  the  necessity  for  industrial 
instruction  in  cities,  and  leaves  entirely  unanswered 
the  difficult  questions  whether  a  one-sided  mental  devel- 
opment does  not  in  every  case  injure  physical  develop- 
ment ;  whether  a  one-sided  mental  development  in 
childhood  does  not  injure  the  whole  mental  develop- 
ment ;  whether  that  is  the  right  pedagogy  which 
almost  exclusively  cultivates  the  mental  powers,  and 
leaves  the  culture  of  the  physical  powers  to  accident ; 
and  whether  the  present  mental  development  in  the 
schools  is  the  most  complete  and  the  best. 

What  will  industrial  instruction  benefit  the  country 
children,  and  to  what  purpose  will  they  employ  their 
learning?     What  a  question!     One  can  hardly  under- 

1  Swiss  Ed.  Journal,  1884. 


68  INDUSTRIAL   INSTRUCTION. 

stand  how  it  can  be  put  by  schoolmen  and  by  people 
who  have  any  knowledge  of  life.  Let  us  turn  the 
lance,  and  ask  how  theoretical,  abstract,  mental  in- 
struction benefits  country  children,  and  to  what  pur- 
pose will  they  apply  their  knowledge?  How  will 
geography,  history,  grammar,  and  poetry  benefit  them, 
and  to  what  purpose  will  they  apply  this  learning? 
Truly,  if  only  those  studies  could  be  pursued  in  the 
school  which  would  benefit  the  country  children,  which 
would  offer  them  as  future  peasants  direct  material 
advantage  for  practical  small  farming,  then  there  would 
remain  little  more  than  the  mediaeval  triad,  —  read- 
ing, writing,  and  arithmetic.  Since  the  opponents  of 
industrial  instruction  inquire  after  the  direct  material 
advantasres  resultino^  from  trainins:  in  hand  labor,  we 
must  also  inquire  after  the  direct  material  benefits  re- 
sulting from  the  present  subjects  of  instruction. 

It  is  clear  as  the  sun  that,  on  the  basis  of  direct 
practical  benefit  and  direct  practical  realization  of  the 
same,  industrial  instruction  must  be  preferred  to  theo- 
retic abstract  instruction,  for,  especially  for  the  small 
farmers,  this  benefit  is,  without  further  demonstration, 
apparent  to  every  man. 

Poor  industrial  instruction  in  general  is  in  a  bad  way. 
On  the  one  side,  it  is  opposed  because  it  is  of  no  mate- 
rial benefit  to  the  scholar ;  on  the  other,  because  it 
makes  pupils  and  parents  too  materialistic  and  avari- 
cious, and  threatens  the  ideal  conception  of  life.  If, 
by  skilful  management,  industrial  instruction  escapes 


INDUSTRIAL    INSTRUCTION.  69 

the  Scylla  of  uselessness,  it  immediately  falls  into  the 
Charybdis  of  profit ;  escape  is  impossible.  The  Jew 
must  be  burned  ! 

Until  now,  personal  material  benefit  has  never  deter- 
mined the  choice  of  subjects  of  instruction,  but  the 
choice  has  been  relatively  determined  by  their  edu- 
cational, moral,  and  social  values.  Personal  material 
benefit  can  never  be  made  a  general  criterion  for  the 
reception  or  the  rejection  of  a  branch  of  instruction 
in  public  education,  because  that  which  benefits  the 
individual  may  injure  society,  and,  conversely,  that 
w-hich  is  very  important  to  society  may  be  of  indiffer- 
ent wrorth  to  the  individual.  Thus  instruction  in  his- 
tory as  well  as  teaching  in  the  whole  domain  of  social 
duties  is  for  state  and  society  of  the  greatest  impor- 
tance, but  for  the  individual  completely  useless,  unless 
he  expects  to  become  a  teacher  of  these  subjects.  In 
private  education,  personal  material  benefit  may  deter- 
mine one's  choice ;  in  public  education,  on  the  con- 
trary, it  only  comes  under  consideration  in  so  far  as  it 
is  of  benefit  to  society  ;  only  the  latter  is  determinative. 
Social  benefit,  how^ever,  is  often  covered  by  moral  and 
pedagogical  [educational]  utility.  Even  in  private 
education,  the  direct  material  benefit  is  a  very  uncer- 
tain standard.  Whoever  applies  it  to  subjects  of  public 
instruction  only,  shows  that  he  has  never  reflected  upon 
the  difference  between  private  and  public  instruction, 
and  upon  the  principle  determining  the  latter. 

Industrial   instruction   can   not    he  ojyposed   on   the 


70  INDUSTRIAL    INSTRUCTION. 

ground  of  private  education,  but  only  on  the  basis  of 
public  education,  and  one  must  present  social,  moral, 
and  pedagogic  arguments  against  it  or  remain  silent. 

Hence,  the  question  regarding  the  future  application 
of  what  has  been  learned  can  be  no  reason  for  the 
rejection  of  a  subject  of  instruction  from  the  state 
school,  because  the  modern  state  rightly  knows  no 
fixed  classes  and  castes,  and  no  one  knows  what  places 
in  life  the  children  must  and  will  fill.  A  subject  of 
instruction  in  the  state  school  can,  therefore,  only  be 
tested  on  the  ground  of  benefit  which  it  can  and  does 
give  to  the  individual  for  his  life  in  society.  It  cannot 
be  estimated  according  to  the  benefit  which  the  indi- 
vidual, as  a  member  of  a  certain  class,  will  receive 
from  it.  Whoever  estimates  it  in  this  way,  removes 
himself  from  the  foundations  of  the  state,  viz.,  equal- 
ity of  civil  rights,  and  places  himself  on  the  basis  of 
the  media3val  state,  viz.,  difi:erence  of  classes  and  in- 
equality of  rights.  AYith  the  cessation  of  fixed  classes 
in  the  state,  the  education  for  them  must  also  cease, 
and  indeed,  in  the  public  school  it  has  ceased  in  so 
far  that  subjects  of  instruction  are  no  longer  considered 
in  resrard  to  the  advanta^^e  resultino^  to  classes.  If  we 
wish  to  estimate  the  subjects  of  instruction  in  the 
school  for  study  on  the  basis  of  advantage  for  laborers, 
hand-workers,  and  farmers,  of  the  majority  of  the  nation, 
then  everything  must  give  place  to  industrial  instruc- 
tion, for  to  all  these  men,  labor,  skill, and  intelligence  in 
these  things  are  of  the  greatest  importance.     On  the 


INDUSTRIAL    IXSTRUCTION.  71 

other  hand,  if  we  estimate  subjects  of  instruction  ac- 
cording to  the  benefit  wliich  they  bring  to  the  indi- 
vidual for  life  in  society,  again  industrial  instruction 
for  these  classes  must  be  placed  at  the  head.  Out  of 
respect  for  the  reading  world,  we  do  not  trouble  our- 
selves with  extravagance,  such  as,  from  industrial  in- 
struction one  does  not  learn  to  labor, ^  for  they  are 
too  absurd  to  be  disputed.  We  might  as  well  say  that 
by  instruction  in  reading,  we  do  not  learn  to  read,  nor 
by  instruction  in  swimming,  to  swim,  etc.,  etc.  Upon 
what  educational,  moral,  and  just  grounds  could  one 
support  an  argument  in  advocating  the  education  of  a 
laborer's  child  for  a  future  laborer,  the  child  of  a  farmer 
for  a  future  farmer,  the  child  of  a  mechanic  for  a 
future  mechanic?  To-day,  when  legal  barriers  between 
individual  classes  do  not  exist,  and  any  man  can  easily 
pass  from  one  over  into  the  other, — to-day,  when 
every  man  carries  the  marshal's  staff,  so  to  speak,  to 
the  social  step-ladder  in  his  pocket,  would  not  such  an 
education  of  youth  be  the  purest  Chineseism,  an  op- 
pression of  youth  and  a  sin  against  the  human  mind? 
Have  not  the  majority  of  great  men  come  from  the 
lower  classes  ?  Were  not  the  great  manufacturers  of 
to-day  laborers  ?  Has  it  not  been  ascertained  that  by 
far  the  greater  part  of  personal  property  does  not  go 
down  to  the  third  generation?^     Because  of  the  great 

*  Meyer,  Handicraft  Instruction. 

2  The  Labor  Question,  by  Fred.  A.  Lange.    "Winterthur,  by  Bleiiler, 
Hansheer  &  Co.,  1875. 


72  INDUSTRIAL   INSTRUCTION. 

tendency   toward   ch'ange    in    our   social   strata,   labor 
becomes  an  anchor  of  safety  even  to  the  rich. 

If  it  is  specially  asserted  that  industrial  instruction 
is  of  no  value  to  the  children  of  farmers,  then  we  must 
ask,  what  is  open  to  the  farmer  burdened  with  debt,  or 
even  the  well-to-do  land-owner  with  three  or  four  sons  ? 
Will  he  give  each  a  farm  or  capital  sufficient  for  one 
to   live    on    the   mterest,    or   will    he    have   them    all 
study?     All   those   farmers'  sons  who  are    not   eldest 
born,  and  have  several  brothers  and  sisters,  and  whose 
parents  are  not  rich,  must  apply  themselves  to  industry. 
The   little    property  cannot    bear    division ;    it  would 
no   longer  support  its   owner.     Even   if  it  were  large 
enough  to  allow  it,  division  nmst  be  guarded  against, 
because   in  farming,  as  in  other  industries,  only    the 
large  business  is  profitable  and  capable  of  standing  com- 
petition.    Now,  provided  industrial  instruction  should 
only  be  regarded  as  a  general  professional  preparation, 
even  then  for  a  large  number  of  farmers'  sons  it  would 
be  of  great  benefit.     It  is  also  advantageous  to  those 
sons  of  farmers  who  devote  themselves  to  farming,  in 
that  it  makes  them   acquainted  with  industrial  labor, 
teaches  them  to  love  and  respect  it,  enlarges  their  in- 
tellectual horizon,  and  induces  greater  mentnl  activity. 
For  the  immediate  execution  of  repairs  upon  farming 
implements  and  household  furniture,  the  skill    gained 
by  industrial  instruction  will  be  an  advantage. 

The  same   reason  for  refusing  industrial  instruction 
for  the  farming  population   would  justify  us  in  refus- 


INDUSTRIAL    IXSTRUCTION.  73 

ing  for  the  laboring  population  instruction  in  botany, 
zoology,  and  agricultural  chemistry.  If  these  subjects 
of  instruction  are  necessary  for  the  industrial  pop- 
ulation, in  order  that  their  horizon  shall  be  enlarged 
beyond  the  nearest  interests  of  their  calling,  and  in 
order  that  they  shall  not  be  utter  strangers  in  the  world 
of  nature,  then  for  the  farming  population  industrial 
instruction  is  necessary,  that  their  views  may  be  ex- 
tended beyond  agriculture,  and  that  they  may  not  be 
oblifi^ed  to  wander  as  total  strano^ers  throu^rh  the  world 
of  industry  and  technology. 

That  industrial  instruction  does  not  teach  thrashing, 
mowing,  and  ploughing  is  no  argument  against  its  ben- 
efit, but  against  its  completeness.  Doubtless,  agricult- 
ural labor  has  also  great  educational  value,  and  cer- 
tainly we  cannot  consider  that  to  be  an  ideal  education 
which  is  separated  from  agriculture  and  practical  em- 
ployment with  nature ;  but  we  cannot  deal  with  this 
question  here,  and  have  only  to  remark  that  the  educa- 
tional value  of  thrashing,  mowing,  and  ploughing  is 
extremely  narrow,  and  for  every  one  who  is  educated 
to  labor,  the  learning  of  these  arts  is  very  simple. 
Even  if  agricultural  labor  were  included  in  industrial 
instruction,  we  should  oppose  it  on  the  ground  of  its 
being  too  mechanical.  All  labor  is  not  educative;  that 
only  is  so  which  is  pursued  pedagogically ;  that  lohich 
is  pursued  mechanically  is  stupefying;  and  mechan- 
ical employments,  even  ivhen  pedagogically  pursued, 
are  of  comparatively  little  educational  value. 


74  INDT7STKIAL   INSTRUCTION, 


CHAPTER  V. 

THE   OBJECTIONS    OF    EDUCATORS  AND   SCHOOLMEN  TO 
INDUSTRIAL   INSTRUCTION. 

I.      THE   AIM   OF    THE    SCHOOL   AND    OF    INDUSTRIAL   IN- 
STRUCTION. 

The  opponents  of  industrial  instruction  prefer  to 
speak  of  incidental  matters,  and  remain  eloquently 
silent  upon  essential  points.  They  ridicule  the  one- 
si  dedness  of  the  pedagogically  uneducated  friends  of 
this  subject ;  they  criticise  the  incompleteness  and  the 
material  benefit ;  they  look  at  the  economic  results 
with  the  microscope,  and  prophesy  the  ruin  of  hand 
work  and  of  culture  ;  they  speak  of  the  violation  of 
personal  freedom,  and  above  all,  they  see  no  possibility 
of  practical  accomplishment ;  they  discuss  all  these  in- 
cidental points  in  detail,  but  no  one  speaks  even  inci- 
dentally upon  the  essential  points.  I^ot  a  single  per- 
son  considers  the  question  ivhether  or  not  industrial 
instruction  is  necessary  for  the  harmonious  develop- 
ment of  manldnd.  Not  a  single  person  shows  that 
labor  y  according  to  its  nature  and  influence,  may  for  the 
education  and  training  of  mankind  he  disjieiuable, 
superfluous,  or  even  injurious.     They  all  go  round  this 


IXDUSTEIAL    IXSTRUCTION.  75 

principal  question  like  the  small  relative  of  the  large 
lion  round  the  hot  soup.^ 

So  long  as  this  fundamental  question  in  its  proper 
sense  remains  unansivered ,  the  assaults  of  opjoonents  are 
merely  entertaining  sMrmishing ,  without  any  kind  of 
decisive  force. 

All  opponents  of  industrial  instruction  acknowledge 
the  justice  of  the  demand  for  harmonious  development, 
or  themselves  make  this  demand ;  but  while  the  major- 
ity trouble  themselves  to  prove  that  it  is  already  sup- 
plied by  the  present  school,  at  least  one  has  felt  the 
risk  of  such  an  assertion,  and  hence  he  declares  that 
"  the  school  is  only  a  factor  in  the  process  of  human 
development,"  and  that  "  its  task  is  abstraction." 

In  conformity  with  the  demand  of  the  school  law 
in  the  canton  of  Zuiich  for  harmonious  development, 
the  aim  of  the  public  school  is  to  train  the  children  of 
all  classes  to  he  mentally  active^  socially  useful,  aud 
morally  i^eligious.  [In  the  bill  by  Thomas  Scherz,  it 
stands  morally  good.']  The  public  school  will  now 
have  a  brand  new  aim,  viz.,  training  in  abstraction, 
which  may  be  supposed  to  mean  idea  training  [idea 
building] . 

Let  us  for  the  moment  accept  this  new  aim  as  cor- 
rect, then  the  question  arises  as  to  how  the  school 
will  fulfil  its  purpose ;  how  shall  it  instil  ideas  into 
the    children?     Our   opponent   does    not    discuss  this 

^  Report  of  Proceedings  of  Zurich  School  Sjmocl,  1882. 


76  INDUSTRIAL    IN.STRL'CTION. 

question.  If  he  thinks  the  education  in  ideas  should 
be  pursued  differently  from  what  it  has  been  up  to  the 
present  time,  he  ought  to  have  said  so,  in  order  to  jus- 
tify the  definition  of  his  aim.  If  he  thinks,  however, 
that  it  should  be  pursued  as  heretofore,  then  from  this 
different  definition  his  aim  can  only  be  by  it  to  reject 
the  demand  for  harmonious  training  in  the  school,  and 
with  it  the  demand  for  industrial  instruction.  Indeed, 
it  is  so ;  both  demands  are  opposed  by  this  argument. 
Let  us  see  with  what  right. 

First  of  all,  we  very  gladly  notice  that  industrial 
instruction  is  indirectly  acknowledged  to  be  a  means  for 
harmonious  development.  We  must,  however,  point  to 
the  fact  that  hitherto  no  one  has  ever  assigned  to  the 
school  merely  the  aim  of  idea  training,  but  has  always 
stipulated  that  it  shall  develop  physical  skill,  together 
with  moral  capabilities  and  qualities.  Let  us  admit 
that  idea  training  is  included  with  mental  activity, 
although  this  is  not  right,  since  it  is  only  a  part  of  it, 
and  does  not  include  judgment  and  argument.  For 
our  present  school,  therefore,  the  definition  is  much 
too  narrow,  and  hence  cannot  be  used  as  a  reason  for 
refusing  the  demand  for  harmonious  development,  in- 
clusive of  the  demand  for  industrial  instruction. 

But  even  admitting  that  this  is  correct,  that  the  aim 
of  the  public  school  be  merely  to  form  ideas,  then, 
indeed,  industrial  instruction  cannot  be  excluded,  but 
nmst  so  much  the  more  be  demanded,  as  it  is  the  most 
important  means  for  idea  building.     As  such,  it  sur- 


INDUSTRIAL    IXSTRUCTIOX.  77 

passes  object  instruction,  for  it  presupposes  the  most 
exact  observation  of  things,  and  adds  to  it  new  forms, 
together  with  new  concepts.  Hence,  the  ideas  must 
necessarily  become  clearer  ajid  more  definite  than  by 
mere  object  instruction. 

Further,  the  suggestion  that  it  is  only  a  factor  in  the 
development  of  mankind  cannot  free  the  school  from 
the  claim  for  harmonious  development.  Certainly,  it 
is  only  a  factor  in  human  development,  but  it  is  the 
representative,  par  excellence^  of  pedagog}^  and  as 
such  must  within  its  sphere  fulfil  the  demands  of  peda- 
gogy. It  must  educate  harmoniously,  as  also  the 
other  factors  of  education,  home  and  society,  on  their 
part  must  do.  As  we  know,  these  latter  train  one- 
sidedly  and  inharmoniously  enough. 

In  Heaven's  name,  who  should  satisfy  the  demand 
for  harmonious  education,  if  not  the  school  ?  The  home 
is  still  less  capable  of  giving  a  harmonious  training 
than  it  is  of  giving  education  in  labor  and  mental  activ- 
ity. Society  has  created  the  school,  through  which  the 
educational  duties  of  the  family  are  to  be  fulfilled. 
Consequently,  the  task  will  remain  to  the  school,  and 
only  to  it  can  the  task  of  harmonious  training  be  as- 
signed. Certainly,  previous  to  the  fourteenth  or  fif- 
teenth year,  the  public  school  cannot  be  required  to 
train  ready  men,  for  it  has  only  children  under  its  con- 
trol, but  it  can  be  required  to  train  harmoniously. 
Harmonious  training  must  not  be  confused  with  com- 
plete  training.     In  all  stages  and  conditions  of  life, 


78  IXDUSTRIAL    INSTRUCTION. 

education  can  be  harmonious,  but  in  its  compass  not 
complete  and  finished.  Harmonious  training  does  not 
mean  finished  training,  but  it  means  such  training  that 
all  human  powers  and  talents  shall  be  symmetrically 
developed.  Harmonious  training  means  to  bring  the 
moral,  mental,  and  physico-practical  side  of  man  to  a 
symmetrical  development.  Harmonious  training  de- 
notes, not  the  quantity,  but  the  quality  of  the  training. 
Harmonious  training  cannot  be  determined  by  square, 
still  less  by  long,  but  only  by  cubic  measure. 

The  majority  of  the  opponents  of  industrial  instruc- 
tion assert  that  the  school  already  fulfils  the  demand 
for  harmonious  training.  In  any  case,  the  crown 
belongs  to  the  German  educator,  who  has  the  boldness 
to  declare  that  every  single  subject  in  the  school  should 
educate  symmetrically ;  since  industrial  instruction  does 
not  do  this,  then  it  does  not  belong  to  the  school.  Then 
reading,  wanting,  arithmetic,  grammar,  geometry, 
geography,  history,  nature  knowledge  (^.  e.,  natural 
history),  singing,  drawing,  gymnastics,  not  all  to- 
gether, each  applied  in  its  right  proportion  trains  sym- 
metrically, but  each  alone  trains  symmetrically,  so  it 
stands  written  in  black  and  white.  Accordingly,  each 
trains  the  moral,  mental,  and  physico-practical  side  of 
our  nature.  It  is  a  marvel,  not  only  that  the  children, 
and  indeed,  that  we  teachers  ourselves,  through  the  en- 
joyment of  such  training,  have  not  already  become  half- 
gods,  l>ut  that  many  among  us  have  remained  very  one- 
sided indeed.     Just  think  of  it  I    every  subject  trains 


INDUSTRIAL   INSTRUCTION.  79 

symmetrically  ;  there  are  a  dozen  subjects,  then  there  is 
a  twelvefold  symmetry. 

But  how?  If  each  subject  trained  symmetrically, 
morality  would  receive  about  one  per  cent,  the  physico- 
practical  capabilities  one  per  cent,  and  the  mind  about 
ninety-eight  per  cent.  Then  could  we  speak  of  the 
symmetrical  training  power  of  each  of  these  subjects? 
Certainly,  but  only  with  the  aid  of  very  flat  petti- 
foggery. Sound  common-sense  would  not  speak  of 
the  symmetry,  but  of  the  one-sidedness  of  such  train- 
ing. 

If  in  an  excited  discussion  upon  the  power  of  train- 
ing symmetrically  which  belongs  to  each  of  the  ordi- 
nary school  subjects,  one  should  so  exaggerate,  we  could 
understand  it ;  if,  however,  it  is  to  be  found  printed 
in  a  pamphlet  by  a  man  crowned  with  a  recognized 
diploma  of  popular  science  enterprise,  then  it  is  pre- 
suming a  great  deal  upon  our  three  dimensional  power 
of  comprehension.^ 

It  is  self-evident  that  the  bold  opponent  makes  no 
attempt  to  show  that  industrial  instruction  does  not 
train  as  symmetrically  as  at  least  any  one  of  the  school 
subjects,  e.  g,,  writing  or  singing.  And  "if  reasons 
were  as  plenty  as  blackberries,"  says  Falstafi",  we 
should  still  give  you  none.     So  also  the  opponent ;  he 

^  Meyer's  Instruction  in  Handicraft  appeared  in  the  German  Zeit- 
und  Streit-Fragen.  Certainly,  our  remarks  are  not  opposed  to 
this  meritorious  enterprise. 


80  INDUSTRIAL   INSTRUCTION. 

asserts  quite  simply  that  industrial  instruction,  apart 
from  the  resulting  exercise  of  the  eye,  strives  to 
secure  the  greatest  one-sided  development  of  one 
member. 

What  industrial  instruction,  i.  e.,  what  certain  peo- 
ple at  certain  places  seek  to  accomplish  by  indus- 
trial instruction,  has  nothing  to  do  with  an  earnest 
investigation  as  to  the  training  and  educative  value 
of  the  same,  for  it  can  only  treat  of  what  educational 
results  industrial  instruction  has,  according  to  its 
nature.  What  should  we  say  of  a  teacher,  who, 
wishing  to  inquire  into  the  pedagogic  value  of  a 
school  subject,  would  draw  his  conclusions  from  the 
unpedagogic  aims  and  the  unpedagogic  pursuit  of 
this  subject  on  the  part  of  Henry  or  John?  As  we 
have  already  shown,  the  whole  argument  that  in- 
dustrial instruction  seeks  to  accomplish  a  most  one- 
sided development  of  the  hand,  is  superfluous  and  a 
gross  error.      (See  Chapter  II.) 

Every  subject,  if  it  would  find  acceptance  in  the 
public  school,  must  prepare  for  the  common  vocations 
of  the  common  people.  All  subjects  of  instruction  in 
the  public  school  fulfil  this  demand,  except  industrial 
instruction.  It  prepares  one  only  for  the  position  of  the 
mechanic,  hence  it  must  not  be  received  with  the  pub- 
lic school.  So  argues  the  opponent  further.^  What 
the  common   vocations   of  the  whole  people  are,  has, 

'  Meyer,  Handicraft  Instruction. 


INDUSTRIAL   INSTRUCTION.  81 

however,  not  been  stuted ;  neither  has  a  definition  of 
any  such  avocation  been  given.  Only  one  character- 
istic of  the  idea  of  a  common  avocation  of  the  whole 
people  do  we  learn  indirectly,  viz.,  this,  that  indus- 
trial labor  does  not  belong  to  it.  Then  industry  itself 
is  not  a  common  avocation  of  the  whole  people  ;  also 
agriculture  can  be  no  such  avocation,  for  without  in- 
dustrial labor,  it  is  inconceivable.  For  the  same 
reason,  trade  and  commerce  can  not  belong  to  the 
common  avocations  of  the  whole  people,  for  they  pre- 
suppose and  require  industrial  labor.  Finally,  the  two 
educational  arts,  architecture  and  modelling,  do  not 
belong  to  these  common  avocations,  for  they  are  but 
a  higher  spiritualized  form  of  industrial  instruction. 
Hence  only  painting,  the  arts  of  phonics  and  expression, 
and  the  sciences  remain.  But  these  also  presuppose 
industrial  labor.  The  painter  needs  linen,  paper,  or  a 
wall  to  paint.  The  musician  needs  instruments  upon 
which  to  play,  and  he,  as  well  as  the  poet,  in  order  to 
fix  his  thoughts,  must  have  paper,  pen,  and  ink. 
Finally,  the  scholar,  in  addition  to  the  last-mentioned 
things,  needs  books  and  apparatus.  All  these  indis- 
pensable aids  to-  art  and  science  can  only  be  secured 
by  industrial  labor.  But,  above  all,  industrial  labor 
is  necessary  for  support,  shelter,  clothing,  conve- 
nience, travelling ;  in  short,  for  the  gratification  of 
the  many  inevitable  and  social  necessities  of  artists 
and  scholars.  Accordingly,  without  industrial  labor 
there  would  be  not  only  no  arts  aud  sciences,  but  also 

6 


82  INDUSTRIAL   INSTRUCTION. 

no  agriculture,  no  trade  and  commerce.  However,  as 
industrial  labor  is  excluded  from  the  common  avoca- 
tions of  the  whole  people,  then,  according  to  Herr 
Meyer,  all  these  things  are  not  common  avocations  of 
the  people. 

But  where  are  the  common  avocations  of  the  people, 
if  industrial  labor  does  not  belong  to  them,  —  industrial 
labor  which  unites  all  the  important  avocations  enumer- 
ated ?  If  there  he  one  single  avocation  common  to  the 
whole  people,  it  is  surely  industrial  labor. 

Naturally,  it  does  not  occur  to  the  opponent  to  show 
how  the  usual  school  subjects  prepare  for  the  common 
avocations  of  the  whole  people ;  he  only  declares  it  spe- 
cially in  regard  to  gymnastics.  Now,  if  we  enumerate 
the  avocations  common  to  the  whole  people,  manual 
labor,  agriculture,  trade,  and  commerce,  it  is  not  easy 
to  perceive  in  what  way  gymnastics  will  prepare  for 
them  ;  if  we  enumerate  the  public  offices  as  avocations 
common  to  the  whole  people,  again  we  can  hardly 
understand  how  gymnastics  can  prepare  for  the  ad- 
ministration of  justice  and  public  affairs.  Does  bend- 
ino^  of  the  knees  and  stretchinoj  of  the  arms  instil  into 
the  mind  a  comprehension  of  a  citizen's  rights  and 
duties?  Gymnastics  can  certainly  make  a  man  more 
skilful  in  the  fulfilment  of  one  political  duty,  that  of 
protecting  the  country,  and  it  can  strengthen  the  body 
for  the  practice  of  labor ;  but  it  certainly  cannot  pre- 
pare for  civil  employments  so  well  as  perhaps  writing, 
reading,  and  arithmetic  for  trade  and  commerce.     If 


INDUSTRIAL   INSTRUCTION.  83 

the  opponent  has  in  any  way  united  an  idea  underly- 
ing his  words  at  all,  then  there  is  about  it  a  scholarly 
conceit,  and  an  undervaluing  of  labor  in  general  which 
we  no  longer  expected  to  encounter.  But  we  have 
reason  to  suppose  that  he  has  worked  according  to  the 
Mephistophelian  advice  :  — 

"  But  o'er-anxious  thought  you  '11  And  of  no  avail; 
For  there  precisely  where  ideas  fail, 
A  word  comes  opportunely  into  play. 
Most  admirable  weapons  words  are  found ; 
On  words  a  system  we  securely  ground ; 
In  words  we  can  conveniently  believe, 
Nor  of  a  single  jot  can  we  a  word  bereave." 

From  Anna  Southwick's  translation  of  Faust. 


Now,  from  our  investigations,  it  follows  that  in 
view  of  the  aims  for  the  people's  school  established 
by  the  opponents,  industrial  instruction  cannot  be  ex- 
cluded, but  for  the  securing  of  these  aims  it  is  more 
than  ever  to  be  desired.  As  we  shall  further  show 
in  the  coming  pages,  it  is  necessary  for  idea  building 
[theoretical  training] ,  and  necessary  for  preparation 
for  the  most  important  avocations  of  human  life. 

II.       CAN    GY]MNASTICS      SECURE     HARMONIOUS     DEVELOP- 
MENT? 

The  opponents  of  industrial  instruction  say  that 
gymnastics  will  secure  harmonious  development,  only 
they  must  be  given  in  their  full  extent.    They  demand, 


84  INDUSTRIAL   INSTEUCTION. 

therefore,  daily  instruction  and  exercise.  Hereby, 
they  start  upon  the  false  presumption  that  industrial 
instruction  deals  only  with  general  physical  develop- 
ment. If  this  were  the  case,  then  gymnastics  could 
certainly  in  great  part,  though  not  entirely,  replace 
labor.  Indeed,  we  can  hardly  understand  how  g\^m- 
nastics  will  or  can  exactly  exercise  and  strengthen 
all  the  motor  nerves  which  are  required  for  the  per- 
formance of  definite  labor.  If  industrial  instruction 
had  merely  the  education  of  the  hand  for  its  aim, 
then  instruction  in  gymnastics  could  not  replace  it. 
Gymnastics  can  only  increase  capability  for  labor,  but 
can  directly  create  neither  capability  nor  skill  in 
labor.  If  we  compare  the  human  body  and  its  organs 
with  a  manufactory  and  the  machinery  which  it  con- 
tains, then  we  can  say  gymnastic  instruction  is  neces- 
sary in  order  to  strengthen  the  motor ;  but  industrial 
instruction  is  necessary  in  order  to  erect  and  to  make 
capable  of  action  the  machine  which  must  be  moved 
by  this  motor.  Of  what  use  is  a  strong  motor  without 
a  competent  machine,  capable  of  action?  At  best,  it 
only  causes  destruction  and  ruin  to  itself.  Gymnas- 
tic instruction  trains  the  organs  of  the  body  in  general, 
essentially  for  the  sake  of  the  organs  themselves ; 
industrial  instruction  trains  for  the  aims  of  life. 
Gymnastic  instruction  receives  its  highest  signifi- 
cance only  as  a  suggestion  towards  the  aims  of  life, 
and  as  means  for  their  fulfilment.  It  is  not  pursued 
in  the  school  for  the  purpose  of  training  contortionists 


INDUSTRIAL   IXSTRUCTION.  85 

and  athletes,  but  men  with  sound  bodies,  who  are 
capable  of  fulfilling  their  duties  towards  society.  For 
the  aims  of  life,  gymnastic  instruction  is  dispensable  ; 
industrial  instruction,  on  the  contrary,  is  for  this  pur- 
pose indispensable  ;  it  must  be  given  by  whom  it  may. 
Gymnastic  instruction,  including  gymnastics  and  not 
merely  school  exercises,  serves  for  harmonious  devel- 
opment ;  industrial  instruction  serves  for  this  also, 
but  in  a  broader  sense,  in  that  it  also  promotes  the 
aims  of  life.  Gymnastics  train  no  organ  for  the  pur- 
poses of  life,  but  industrial  instruction  trains  the  or- 
gans therefor,  and  besides,  strengthens  them  as  well 
as  gymnastics.  Hence,  gymnastics  can  never  replace 
industrial  instruction,  hut  a  ic ell-arranged  course  of 
industrial  instruction  might  rather  make  gymnastic 
instruction  sujjerjiuous. 

Industrial  instruction,  the  same  as  any  harmonious 
development,  is  not  intended  to  give  to  the  present  one- 
sided mental  development  a  counterl)alance  in  bodily 
exertion.  Oh,  no  !  In  the  first  place,  that  would  not 
give  harmonious  development ;  and  in  the  second,  it 
w^ould  be  a  very  narrow  comprehension  of  industrial 
instruction  and  of  harmonious  development.  Indus- 
trial instruction  has  much  more  to  do  ivith  creating  an 
interest,  aim,  and  foundation  for  theoretical,  abstract 
instruction,  and  with  securing  knowledge  and  under- 
standing,  which  no  other  instruction,  which,  indeed,  no 
instruction  but  labor,  can  secure;  just  as  harmonious 
education  deals  not  only  with  the  establishment  of  eqici- 


86  INDUSTRIAL   INSTRUCTION. 

librium  between  bodily  and  mental  training,  but  quite 
as  much  with  the  establishment  of  equilibrium  within 
the  si^here  of  mental  training,  and  above  all,  for  the 
establishment  of  equilibrium  betiveen  moral  and  mental 
training. 

•  In  conclusion,  we  may  remark  that  no  opponent  of 
industrial  instruction  attempts  to  show  that  gymnastic 
instruction  can  supply  the  demand  for  harmonious 
development.  Some  merely  assert  that  it  does,  and 
others  demand  that  increased  instruction  in  gymnastics 
shall  secure  harmonious  development. 

III.       THE    SCHOOL    ALREADY   PURSUES    HAND   LABOR. 

It  has  already  a  number  of  subjects,  which  "from 
their  mechanical  side,  may  be  regarded  as  hand  labor, 
i.  e.,  writing,  drawing,  arithmetic,  and  geometry." 

These  subjects,  together  with  gymnastics,  make  in- 
dustrial instruction  in  particular  dispensable,  say  the 
opponents.  Oh !  oh !  Why,  then,  do  they  assert 
that  the  school  already  pursues  hand  labor,  if,  as  a 
subject  of  instruction,  it  is  of  no  worth?  And  if  it  is 
already  there,  why  should  they  resist  the  introduction 
of  hand  labor  into  instruction?  In  this  case,  the  ques- 
tion should  only  l)e  for  more  or  less.  Yet,  no ;  the 
opponent  is  pleased  to  jest ;  or  is  he  in  earnest  when 
he  asserts  that  a  number  of  school  subjects,  among 
them  arithmetic  and  geometry,  from  their  mechanical 
side  are  hand  labor?     Certainly  he  is  in  earnest,  and 


INDUSTKIAL   IXSTRUCTION.  87 

IS,  indeed,  entirely  right.  All  sciences,  as  philology, 
history,  geography,  botany,  zoology,  mineralogy,  and 
chemistry,  moreover  law,  medicine,  astronomy,  theol- 
ogy, and  philosophy,  are,  from  their  mechanical  sides, 
hand  labor.  This  doctrine  from  its  sublimity  is  worthy 
to  stand  beside  that  of  the  English  professor,  Henry 
Steifens,  wdio  says,  in  eflect,  "  For  the  laboring  man, 
hand  labor  is  enjoyment ;  but  for  the  gentleman,  enjoy- 
ment is  labor."  For  the  completion  of  this  system  of 
doctrhie,  it  only  remains  to  be  show^n  that  the  tread- 
mill punishment  in  the  English  prisons,  from  its  anti- 
mechanical  side,  is  mental  activity.  This  last  assertion 
would  prove  as  much  against  the  mental  activity  of 
criminals  as  the  foregoing  objection  proves  against 
industrial  instruction. 

Writing,  drawing,  arithmetic,  geometry,  and  gym- 
nastics, says  one,  make  special  industrial  instruction 
superfluous.  Why  do  these  subjects  make  hand  labor 
superfluous?  Because,  from  their  mechanical  side, 
they  are  hand  labor.  In  the  future,  the  tilling  of  the 
field,  the  construction  of  railroads  and  buildings,  the 
making  of  clothes,  dyes,  soaps,  in  short,  every  kind 
of  hand  labor  will  be  unnecessary,  because  all  the 
sciences,  from  their  mechanical  side,  are  hand  labor. 
Happy  future  ! 

The  friends  of  industrial  instruction  have  quite  as 
much  authority  for  stating  that  hand  labor  makes  all 
theoretical  instruction  unnecessary,  because  every  kind 
of    labor,   from   its   anti-mechanical    side,    is     mental 


88  INDUSTEIAL   INSTRUCTION. 

activity.     But  what  would  be  gained  by  such  a  hah*- 
splitting  controversy  ? 

This  play  of  words  by  the  opponents  proves  nothing 
against,  but  something  for,  the  cause  of  industrial 
instruction,  as  it  shows  how  the  opponents  catch  at 
reasons  and  cling  to  every  trifle.  It  is  a  declaration 
of  bankruptcy. 

IV.     DISCIPLINARY   AND   EDUCATIONAL   VALUE    OF   DRAW- 
ING,   INDUSTRIAL,    AND    SCIENCE    INSTRUCTION. 

Starting  from  the  false  assumption  that  industrial 
instruction  aims  merely  at  the  development  of  the 
hand,  we  meet  the  assertion  that  the  hand  is  better 
exercised  by  instruction  in  drawing ;  that  drawing  is 
quite  as  educative  and  attractive  an  object  for  employ- 
ment. It  extends  to  professional  labor,  and  trains  the 
taste  and  the  eye. 

For  the  moment,  let  us  admit  that  industrial  instruc- 
tion merely  aims  at  the  development  of  the  hand ;  then 
drawing  can  replace  it  as  little  as  gymnastics.  The  op- 
ponents will  not  and  can  not  prove  that  instruction  in 
drawino-  can  strengthen  all  the  motor  nerves  and  mus- 
cles  which  are  necessary  for  different  kinds  of  active 
lal^or.  In  working,  we  must  make  movements  accord- 
ing to  all  three  dimensions ;  in  drawing,  only  accord- 
ing to  two :  in  working,  we  must  apply  nuiscular 
strength  to  a  greater  or  less  degree ;  in  drawing,  but 
very  little :  in  working,  we  must  lift,  press,  draw, 
push,  strike,  turn,  wind,  bend,  stretch,  give  resistance 


INDUSTEIAL   INSTRUCTION.  89 

to  pressure,  to  pushing,  striking,  drawing ;  in  draw- 
ing, the  greater  number  of  these  active  movements  can 
not  be  at  all  applied,  the  rest  only  in  a  one-sided 
fashion.  Now,  since  the  most  important  organ  for  the 
performance  of  all  these  elementary  activities  is  the 
hand,  v^e  can  readily  perceive  that  in  working,  the  hand 
can  be  much  more  generally  exercised  than  in  drawing. 
The  activity  employed  in  drawing  is  not  in  any  way 
equal  to  that  employed  in  working ;  otherwise,  every 
good  designer  must  be  also  a  good  sculptoy  and  work- 
man, which  is  not  by  any  means  the  case.  One  may 
be  able  to  delineate  all  objects  of  nature  and  art  with- 
out being  able  to  construct  a  single  object ;  while,  on 
the  other  hand,  construction  may  l)e  carried  for  without 
ability  to  draw.  But  while  a  man  who  is  skilful  in 
imitating  and  creating  can  with  very  little  instruction 
draw^  the  things  he  has  made,  the  person  who  is  skil- 
ful only  in  drawling  must  learn  a  great  deal  before  he 
can  o'ive  his  drawino^s  material  form.  From  construe- 
tion  to  drawing  is  a  short  step ;  from  drawing  to  con- 
struction is  a  long  way.  Very  feio  great  painters  ivere 
also  skilful  sculptors^  but  the  larger  number  of  great 
sculptors  tcere  also  skilful  designers. 

At  present,  much  is  being  said  about  the  improve- 
ment and  protection  of  artistic  hand  labor ;  but  w^hile 
the  learned  advocates  of  this  improv^ement  look  to 
instruction  in  drawing  as  a  rational  means  of  protec- 
tion, they  pass  by  the  industrial  instruction  as  of  very 
limited  value,  or  oppose  it  entirely.     From  what  has 


90  INDUSTRIAL    INSTRUCTION. 

already  been  said,  we  can  see  how  arbitrary  such  a 
course  is.  In  the  first  place,  for  the  exercise  and 
prosperity  of  artistic  hand  labor,  a  high  grade  of  hand 
skill  is  necessary,  Avhich,  as  we  have  already  shown, 
can  be  better  developed  by  industrial  instruction  than 
by  drawing.  By  the  following  considerations,  the 
mistake  which  lies  in  the  encouragement  of  artistic 
hand  labor  and  the  discouragement  of  industrial  in- 
struction can  be  placed  in  a  still  clearer  light. 

One  caft  draw  everything,  so  to  speak,  even  the 
most  impossible  pictures  of  the  fancy  ;  but  one  cannot 
construct  everything  that  is  drawn,  and  many  objects 
that  are  drawn  can  only  be  constructed  in  definite 
sizes  and  from  particular  material.  Every  material 
has  its  technique  and  laws  of  art,  which  can  only  be 
learned  by  working  with  the  material  itself.  The 
knowledge  of  the  material,  of  its  technique  and  aesthetic 
laws,  is  more  important  for  the  artificer  than  the  pos- 
session of  skill  in  drawing.  Of  what  benefit  is  it  that 
one  can  devise  the  most  tasteful  drawing,  if  one  lacks 
the  practical  skill  to  put  it  into  material  form ;  or  from 
ignorance  of  the  material  in  the  drawing,  one  goes 
beyond  the  limits  of  the  technique  of  this  material,  and 
hence  is  totally  unable  to  work  out  the  drawing  ?  Some- 
times it  even  happens  that  the  design  cannot  be  exe- 
cuted in  any  material.  Finally,  it  is  possible  that  the 
design  may  !)e  executed,  but  the  object  constructed  in 
the  chosen  material  makes  no  im[)ression,  or  is  dis- 
tinctly ugly.     Here  the  errors  in  taste  do  not  arise 


INDUSTRIAL   IXSTEUCTION.  91 

from  ignorance  of  beautiful  forms  so  much  as  from 
ignorance  of  the  technique  and  artistic  laws  of  the 
material  in  which  it  is  embodied.  Lack  of  taste  has 
less  foundation  in  the  inability  of  the  sculptor  and  work- 
man to  draw,  than  in  the  inability  of  the  designer  to 
construct  and  in  his  ignorance  of  the  technique  and 
aesthetics  of  the  material.  It  is  much  more  necessary 
that  the  designer  learn  to  construct  than  that  the  con- 
structor learn  to  draw.  This  last  is,  of  course,  useful 
and  advantageous. 

Certainly,  drawing  may  be  extended  to  professional 
work,  but  it  is  not  itself  professional  work ;  and  that 
drawing  which  extends  to  professional  labor,  and  yet 
does  not  admit  of  transposition  into  professional  labor, 
is  half  complete.  Would  not  drawing  extend  to  pro- 
fessional labor,  that  is,  drawing  from  ground  eleva- 
tion and  profile,  because  more  attractive,  if  it  could 
be  worked  out?  And  what  pedagogic  reason  forbids 
the  working  out  of  what  is  drawn  ?  That  drawing  is 
an  educative  and  attractive  kind  of  employment,  no  one 
doubts ;  but  the  execution,  the  work,  is  still  more  edu- 
cative and  attractive.  The  execution  corrects  the 
drawling,  and  makes  one  rightl}^  conscious  of  the  object 
delineated.  The  making,  the  construction  of  an  object, 
stands  in  its  educative,  attractive,  and  satisfying  value 
much  higher  than  the  imitating,  or  previous  delinea- 
tion of  the  same  on  paper.  Whoever  has  pursued 
hand  labor,  knows  very  well  what  pleasure  and 
satisfaction    a    successful     piece    of    work    furnishes ; 


92  INDUSTRIAL   INSTRUCTION. 

he  knows  how,  at  the  sight  of  it,  the  sense  of  his 
own  value  and  capacity  is  elevated.  The  pleasure 
in  a  piece  of  work  is  much  greater,  deeper,  and  more 
lasting  than  in  a  drawing.  Any  one  who  has  had  the 
two  experiences  will  confirm  this.  Then,  not  a  single 
course  of  industrial  instruction  has  been  held  for  the 
teachers,  in  which  this  pleasure  and  satisfaction  in  the 
products  were  not  conspicuously  apparent.  This  pre- 
viously unknown  satisfaction  has  already  transformed 
many  an  indifferent  man  into  a  warm  friend  of  indus- 
trial instruction.  But  not  onl}^  experience  proves  that 
the  construction  of  things  produces  greater  satisfac- 
tion than  drawing,  psychology  also  proves  it.  Ac- 
cording to  the  law  of  the  effects  of  contrast  this  must 
he  so,  for  the  construction  of  an  object  costs  more 
effort  than  the  drawing  of  it ;  the  construction  is  more 
difficult  than  the  drawing.  The  pleasure  is  in  propor- 
tion to  the  effort  expended  in  reaching  an  aim.^ 

In  an  educational  journal^  it  was  recently  very 
beautifully  shown  that  science  cannot  be  satisfactory, 
because  it  is  continually  incomplete,  but  that  art  can 
satisfy,  because  its  creations  are  always  complete,  dis- 
tinct, whole.  This  assertion  was  made  for  the  use  and 
advantage  of  drawing  in  the  public  school,  but  it  is 
much  more  applicable  to  industrial  instruction,  because 
each  piece  of  work  is  something  complete,  and  in  the 


*  Dr.  Piderit,  Theory  of  Fortune.     Leipzig  and  Heidelberg,  1867. 
2  Teachers'  Journal,  Svvitzerlaud. 


INDUSTRIAL    INSTRUCTION.  93 

liiohest  deoTee  satisfies  its  creator.  But  while  a  school 
drawing  can  seldoni  find  a  practical  application,  the 
labor  product  of  the  pupil  can  always  do  so ;  it  can 
satisfy  a  practical  need,  and  hence  the  satisfaction  of 
the  producer  is  greater.  He  knows  and  can  prove 
that  he  has  created  something  useful. 

In  the  suggestion  that  science  cannot  satisfy,  lies 
the  strongest  condemnation  of  our  present  system  of 
study  and  science  schools.  If  science  itself,  in  its 
highest  perfection,  can  not  satisfy  a  man  who  sees  the 
connection  between  science  and  life,  and  understands 
the  signification  of  the  same  for  material  culture,  how 
can  the  beginnings  of  science  satisfy  the  child  whose 
limited  powers  can  grasp  very  little  of  this  connection 
and  significance? 

The  self-activity  of  the  child  is  rightly  represented 
as  the  most  important  educative  momentum  of  instruc- 
tion in  drawinof.  Instruction  in  drawing:  which  does 
not  rise  above  spiritless  copying  is  of  no  worth ;  that 
instruction  by  which  the  self-activity  of  the  child  is 
exercised  is  the  best.  AYell,  as  little  as  any  one  has 
presumed  to  doubt  the  value  of  the  self-activity  of  the 
pupil  in  drawing,  just  as  little  can  one  question  the 
eminent  importance  of  production  in  industrial  instruc- 
tion. If  producing  in  drawing  is  educative,  it  must 
be  as  much  so  in  hand  labor.  Indeed,  hand  labor 
must  be  more  educative  than  drawing,  because  in  it 
the  self-activity  is  greater.  In  drawing,  one  must 
constantly  deal  with  the  mere  form  ,•  in  labor,  one  has 


94  INDUSTEIAL   INSTRUCTION. 

to  do  with  the  form  together  with  the  material.  In 
drawing,  only  two  dimensions  are  considered ;  in  la- 
bor, the  three  dimensions  must  be  equally  observed. 
Hence,  the  man  who  constructs  an  object  receives 
indisputably  livelier,  clearer  concepts  of  it  than  the 
one  who  merely  draws,  for  he  must  much  more  accu- 
rately comprehend  the  form  as  well  as  the  nature  of 
the  material.  Apart  from  works  of  art,  however,  the 
material  of  every  object  is  quite  as  important  as  the 
form,  and  often  much  more  so. 

Through  the  following  considerations,  the  great  edu- 
cative power  of  hand  labor  as  contrasted  with  drawling 
may  be  much  more  clearly  perceived.  In  working,  I 
must  touch  the  material,  analyze  it,  perhaps  smell 
and  taste  it ;  in  drawing,  not :  in  w^orking,  I  must  learn 
the  properties  of  the  material ;  in  drawing,  not :  in 
working,  I  must  choose  the  tools,  and  also  the  manner 
of  work,  according  to  the  material ;  in  drawing,  not :  in 
working,  I  must,  as  a  rule,  exert  myself  physically  ;  in 
drawing,  not :  in  working,  I  must  give  great  attention  to 
the  material ;  in  drawing,  very  little  :  in  short,  in  work- 
ing, I  must  set  many  more  senses  and  powers  m 
activity  than  in  drawing.  Hence,  the  construction  of 
ol)jects  implies  much  more  knowledge  and  understand- 
ing, enriches  the  concepts  in  a  much  higher  degree, 
and  awakens  and  exercises  many  more  powers  and 
talents,  than  drawing. 

\  Instruction  in  drawing  trains  the  taste  and.  the  eye, 
says  one.     We  admit  that  instruction  in  drawing,  peda- 


INDUSTRIAL   INSTRUCTION.  95 

gogically  pursued,  secures  the  traiuing  of  the  taste  and 
of  the  eye  ;  but  industrial  instruction,  pursued  according 
to  pedagogical  principles,  must  secure  this  training 
in  a  much  higher  degree.  In  regard  to  the  training 
of  the  eye,  there  is  no  doubt  that  by  the  construction 
of  objects  the  eye  must  in  every  way  be  much  more 
exercised  than  by  drawing.  The  proofs  of  this  lie  in 
what  has  ah'eady  been  said.  That  industrial  instruc- 
tion must  be  calculated  to  train  the  eye  and  taste  better 
than  drawing  can  furthermore  be  shown  in  the  fact 
that  the  objects,  according  to  the  material  used,  show 
different  natural  colors  and  lustre,  while  drawing  is 
silent  upon  these  important  qualities  of  objects.  Draw- 
ing trains  really  only  the  taste  for  form.  The  con- 
struction of  objects  trains  also  the  taste  for  color,  and 
for  the  combination  of  color,  form,  and  material.  For 
artistic  hand  work,  and  for  the  artistic  forms  of  life, 
taste  in  combination  is  most  important.  Taste  can  at 
all  events  be  very  much  better  trained  with  objects 
themselves  than  with  drawings  of  objects.  For  this 
reason,  we  visit  places  of  art  and  beauty,  and  shall 
visit  them  even  when  graphic  art  shall  be  much  more 
highly  developed  than  at  present. 

Finally,  and  from  an  educational  point  this  is  most 
important,  it  cannot  be  denied  that  constructive  embodi- 
ment of  form  in  some  material  appeals  to  the  nature  of 
man,  and  especially  of  the  child,  much  more  than  con- 
structions on  paper.  Before  men  could  sketch  they 
could  construct,  and  before  children  touch  the  drawing- 


96  INDUSTRIx\L   INSTRUCTION^. 

pencil   they  huild   and   construct   objects  according  to 
reality. 

If  we  proceed  according  to  naiure,  hand  labor  and 
7nodelling  must  be  introduced  into  the  school^  and  both 
should  precede  draiving.  If  one  really  intends  to  train 
the  taste,  eye,  and  hand,  in  the  school,  then  hand  labor 
is  needed;  if  one  vnshes  to  bring  the  principle  of  self- 
activity  in  a  most  comprehensive  manner  into  the  school, 
so  that  it  may  be  of  worth,  it  can  only  be  done  by  hand 
labor.  If  professional  drawing  in  the  school  is  to  be 
attractive,  then  it  must  be  folloived  by  execution;  if 
the  child  is  to  b'e  satisfied  by  instruction,  the  most  effec- 
tive means  for  this  purpose,  hand  labor,  must  not  be 
excluded. 

Far  be  it  from  us  to  underrate  the  educative  value 
of  drawing;  but  this  educative  value,  and  much  more, 
its  economic  value,  has  been  of  late  considerably 
over-estimated. 

It  is  believed  that  if  not  the  whole,  at  least  one 
half  the  social  problem  may  be  solved  by  drawing. 
With  childlike  thoughtlessness  the  fact  is  entirely  over- 
looked that  the  social  problem  is  not  educational,  but  a 
question  of  economic  transformation.  What  will  it 
profit  the  laborer,  who,  by  an  improved  machine,  or 
because  of  a  business  crisis,  is  thrown  on  the  sidewalk, 
that  he  can  draw?  Or,  hov/  is  drawling  to  help  the 
mechanic  who  is  oppressed  by  the  competition  of  large 
business  industries?  We  hear  it  cried  out,  that,  by 
devotin<?  himself  to  an  artistic  trade,  he  will  obtain  a 


INDUSTRIAL   INSTRUCTION.  97 

footing !  But  have  the  defenders  not  learned  that 
artistic  handicraft  is  also  carried  on  with  all  the  power- 
ful advantages  of  a  large  industry?  Or  have  they 
never  considered  the  question  of  who  is  to  buy  all  the 
products  of  artistic  educated  mechanics?  At  present 
we  have  a  sufficiency  of  artificers,  but  not  enough  pur- 
chasers of  their  products.  There  is  as  great  a  lack  of 
employment  among  artificers  as  among  the  workmen  in 
other  branches  of  industry.  What  we  need  is  people 
able  to  buy,  and  only  by  a  deep-reaching  social  reform 
will  they  become  able.  Only  when  the  mass  of  the 
people  can  take  part  in  the  social  enjoyment  of  life, 
may  we  expect  the  art  trade  to  extend  and  flourish ; 
till  then,  not. 

V.       OBJECTIVE    METHODS    OF    INSTRUCTION    IN    FOREST 
AND   FIELD. 

While  one  set  of  opponents  attach  great  value  to  the 
claims  and  support  of  observation,  others  cast  it  aside, 
and  demand  that  objective  instruction  shall  be  pursued 
in  forest  and  field,  but  not  in  the  workshop.^  Doubt- 
less, objective  instruction  shall  and  must  be  pursued  in 
forest  and  field,  but  it  is  quite  impossible  that  all  ob- 
jective instruction  should  be  carried  on  there.  Thou- 
sands of  thino's  connected  with  life  cannot  be  learned 
in  forest  and  field,  since  not  even  a  national  industrial 

^  Meyer,  Instruction  in  Handicraft ;  and  Report  of  the  Transac- 
tions of  tlie  Zurich  School  Synod,  1882. 
7 


98  INDUSTRIAL   IXSTRUCTION. 

exhibition  furnishes  them.  Also,  what  is  still  more 
importiint,  we  cannot  see  there  how  these  thousands  of 
things  can  be  produced  by  labor.  Why  do  the  ad- 
vanced and  elementary  schools  make  pilgrimages  to 
such  exhibitions?  Entirely  on  the  ground  of  objec- 
tive instruction.  And  wdiy  are  machines  in  action, 
and  work-people  at  such  exhibitions  of  labor  prod- 
ucts, constantly  beset  with  spectators?  Because  an 
infinitely  greater  interest  and  much  more  information 
are  secured  by  being  present  at  the  construction  of  a 
thing,  than  by  merely  looking  at  the  thing  completed. 
But  in  forest  and  field  w^e  can  not  see  grinding, 
kneading,  baking ;  can  not  see  carding,  spinning, 
winding,  twisting,  spooling,  and  weaving ;  can  not  see 
coloring,  spooling,  dressing,  pasting,  stitching,  bind- 
ing, and  ruling ;  can  not  see  printing,  perforating, 
embroidering,  sewing,  knitting ;  can  not  see  filing, 
wielding,  forging ;  can  not  see  sawing,  planing,  glu- 
ing, joining,  turning.  In  forest  and  field  we  can  not 
see  the  creating  of  material  things,  we  can  only  see 
what  has  been  created.  The  creating,  however,  is 
more  interesting  than  the  being.  What  a  one-sided 
comprehension  of  objective  instruction  do  we  meet 
here  !  In  the  face  of  the  fact  that  all  the  prominent 
educators  recommended  objective  instruction  in  the 
workshop,  such  a  comprehension  on  the  part  of  edu- 
cators is  hardly  conceivable  Comenius  and  Locke 
recommended  it  at  a  time  when  the  colossal  industries 
of  our  day  were  not  yet  even  born. 


INDUSTRIAL    INSTRUCTION.  99 


YI.       OBJECTIVE    AND    HAND-LABOR    INSTRUCTION. 

Ill  the  contest  over  industrial  instruction,  it  has  been 
asserted  by  one  of  the  opponents  that  the  foundation  of 
all  educational  work  depends  upon  observation.^  We 
can  not  here  enter  into  a  psychological  discussion,  and 
show  that  this  is  wron^;' ;  we  must  be  satisfied  with 
saying  that  education  rests  upon  entirely  diiferent 
foundations,  while  we  suppose  that  the  opponent  in- 
tended to  say  that  the  foundation  of  all  means  of  edu- 
cation and  understanding  rests  upon  observation. 
Since  the  time  of  Pestalozzi,  who  first  formulated  it, 
this  statement  has  been  generally  received  as  true.  It 
is,  indeed,  true,  though  it  does  not  contain  the  whole, 
but  only  a  part  of  the  truth.  We  do  not  learn  to 
know  an  object  merely  by  looking  at  it ;  not  even 
when  we  feel,  smell,  taste,  and  hear  it,  do  we  learn  to 
know  it  rightly.  If  we  wish  to  learn  it  thoroughly, 
we  must  break,  bruise,  cut  it ;  we  must  press  on  it, 
press  it  together,  stretch  it,  heat  it,  cool  it ;  we  must 
expose  it  to  the  cold,  the  heat,  the  sun,  the  water,  the 
air ;  in  short,  we  must  form  it,  or  deform  it,  or  try 
))oth ;  we  must  loovTi  with  it.  The  most  important 
qualities  of  objects  become  known  to  us,  not  by 
observation,  but  by  actual  work  with  them.  If  our 
ancestors  had  been  satisfied  with  mere  observation, 
we    should    still    be  in    the    dark    about   the    qualities 

^  Report  of  the  Transactions  of  the  Zurich  School  Synod,  1882. 


100  INDUSTRIAL   IXSTRUCTIOX. 

and  nature  of  woods,  minerals,  soils,  and  metals,  as 
well  as  the  nature  of  plants,  animals,  and  even  our- 
selves. Without  working  with  woods,  minerals,  soils, 
and  metals,  what  should  we  know  of  these  things? 
Nothing  that  would  in  any  way  be  important  for  our 
lives.  lYe  could  not  say  whether  or  not  they  are  hard 
or  soft,  cleavable,  fusible,  ductile,  elastic,  brittle,  sol- 
uble, plastic,  etc.  And  if  we  had  not  investigated 
them,  how  would  our  knowledge  of  animals  and  plants 
stand  ?  So  long  as  people  shrunk  from  the  dissection 
of  bodies,  did  the  knov.ledge  of  medicine  rest  upon 
anything  more  than  implicit  faith  ?  Whatever  may  be 
thought  of  vivisection,  we  must  acknowledge  that  we 
owe  to  it  much  of  our  important  knowledge  concern- 
ing the  processes  of  life  and  disease. 

The  results  of  observation  are  misleadinof.  Satisfac- 
tion  with  these  results  gave  rise  to  peculiar  systems  of 
opinions  and  beliefs,  but  when  we  began  to  construct, 
to  act,  the  sciences  were  developed. 

Our  modern  exact  sciences  do  not  rest  alone  upon 
observation,  but  chiefly  upon  experiment,  upon  work- 
ing with  objects  and  living  things.  Hence,  that  obser- 
vation which  implies  not  only  the  use  of  sight,  but  of 
all  the  sense  perceptions,  is  by  no  means  the  only 
source  of  knowledge.  It  is  only  one  among  others  ; 
quite  as  important  a  one  is  labor,  and  a  third  is  the 
sensation  of  movement. 

It  is  indisputable  that  if  we  did  not  possess  the 
power  of  voluntary  movement   and   change  of  place, 


INDUSTRIAL   INSTRUCTION.  101 

with  the  accompanying  sensations  of  movement,  we 
should  never  attain  the  most  important  concept  of 
space.  He  who  has  measured  the  distances  of  the 
earth  only  in  the  steam-cars,  has  a  much  vaguer  im- 
pression of  them  than  he  who  has  measured  them  on 
foot.  Concepts  of  toil,  fatigue^  effort,  can  never  be 
acquired  without  labor  and  sensations  of  movement. 
Hence,  a  man  who  has  never  done  any  kind  of  agri- 
cultural or  industrial  labor  cannot  acquire  these  con- 
cepts, because  the  fundamental  concepts  are  lacking. 
The  fundamental  concepts  of  the  activities  of  arith- 
metic, writing,  and  drawing,  which  one  has  perhaps 
acquired,  can  serve  as  little  for  the  formation  of  the 
concept  of  industrial  and  agricultural  hand  labor,  as 
the  concepts  of  all  the  birds  can  help  us  to  construct  the 
concept  of  a  fish  or  quadruped,  if  we  neither  in  nature 
nor  in  art  had  seen  one.  The  concepts  of  the  mental 
activities  have  little  more  in  common  with  those  of  the 
bodily  activities,  than  the  concepts  of  birds  with  those 
of  fishes  or  quadrupeds. 

But  the  man  who  has  no  conception  of  hand  labor 
can  have  no  self-acquired  and  correct  concepts  of  the 
hand-laboring  class  of  people  [industrial  population], 
and  of  the  objects  constructed  by  them.  In  conse- 
quence of  these  incomplete  concepts,  he  despises  labor 
and  laboring  people,  and  becomes  prodigal  and  waste- 
ful of  labor  products,  just  as  all  the  ruling  classes  of 
ancient  states,  in  consequence  of  the  disuse  of  hand 
labor,  notwithstanding  moral  precepts  and  philosophy, 


102  INDUSTRIAL    INSTRUCTION. 

have,  and  according  to  p.sychological  laws  must  have, 
become.  Ihe  final  result  of  this  disuse  of  hand  la- 
bor, with  its  consequences  of  i)rodigality,  gluttony,  and 
drunkenness,  was  the  complete  bankruptcy  of  society. 
In  proportion  as  the  disuse  of  hand  labor  increased, 
contempt  of  labor  and  laborers,  prodigality,  and  drunk- 
enness increased.  It  could  not  be  otherwise.  Men 
who  are  strangers  in  the  wdiole  world  of  concepts 
growing  out  of  hand  labor,  and  who  are  incapable 
of  thinking,  judging,  arguing,  and  feeling,  are  dan- 
gerous to  the  well-being  of  a  state,  especially  of 
one  founded  upon  the  labor  and  equal  rights  of  all 
citizens. 

Now,  if  the  common  school  does  not  make  them 
acquainted  wnth  it,  a  number  of  citizens  are  at  present 
growing  up  ignorant  of  hand  labor.  Generally,  these 
are  the  citizens  who  will  be  educated  and  chosen  for 
the  guidance  of  the  state.  In  view  of  this  fact,  can 
we  wonder  that  labor  is  so  little  esteemed?  Certainly 
not. 

According  to  icliat  has  been  said,  industrial  instruc- 
tion, from  an  educational  as  ivell  as  from  a  social, 
j)olitical  stand-point,  is  a  necessity.  From  an  educa- 
tional stand-point  it  is  necessary,  because  hand  labor 
secures  knowledge  and  understanding,  lohich  cannot  be 
secured  by  mere  observation,  but  which  for  mental 
training  and  for  life  is,  however,  of  the  highest  im- 
portance. From  a  social,  political,  and  pedagogic 
stand-point,    it   is   iyidispensable,    because   hand   labor 


.      INDUSTRIAL   INSTRUCTION.  103 

serves  in  the  forming  of  concepts  which,  for  the  peace- 
able  intercourse  of  humanity,  for  moral  conduct,  and 
for  the  existence  of  the  state,  are  of  the  greatest  sig- 
nificance. 

VII.       INDUSTRIAL    INSTRUCTION     CAN    NOT    REMEDY   THE 
DISADVANTAGES  OF    THE    PRESENT    SCHOOL    SYSTEM. 

So  the  opponents  declare,  but  they  argue  concern- 
mg  the  physical  injuries  resulting  from  some  kinds  of 
hand  work,  and  shoot  very  wide  of  the  mark.  Indus- 
trial instruction  is  not  in  any  way  intended  to  be 
instruction  in  handicraft,  as  it  is  very  unfitly  called, 
for  it  does  not  educate  finished  mechanics ;  that  is 
done  in  institutions  for  special  instruction  for  which 
the  opponents  of  industrial  instruction  also  speak. 
Industrial  instruction,  pursued  according  to  pedagogic 
principles,  which  is  not  a  mere  transplanting  of  a 
branch  of  industry  into  the  school,  will  decidedly  neu- 
tralize the  disadvantages  of  long  sitting  and  other 
physical  injuries  of  school  life :  first,  because  labor 
demands  the  greatest  variety  of  employment  for  the 
senses  and  muscles,  and  secondly,  because  by  labor, 
partly  quite  other  senses  and  muscles,  partly  the  same 
senses  and  muscles  although  in  other  directions,  are 
brought  into  practice.  However,  recreation,  except 
by  sleep,  does  not  consist  in  idleness,  but  in  change 
of  employment  and  in  change  of  movement  of  the 
bodily  and  mental  forces.  Locke  has  already  pointed 
out  this  important  truth,   and  Rousseau,  speaking  in 


104  INDUSTRIAL   INSTRUCTION. 

behalf  of  hand  labor,  says,  "The  great  secret  of  edu- 
cation is  to  manage  so  that  bodily  exercises  shall  re- 
fresh the  mind,  and  vice  versa,'^  Refreshment,  how- 
ever, does  not  consist  alone  in  the  change  from  bodily 
to  mental  employments,  but  also  in  the  change  within 
the  sphere  of  bodily  and  mental  activities.  Any  per- 
son accustomed  to  self-observation  must  certainly  have 
experienced  this.  One  is  weary  of  historical  study, 
but  still  quite  fresh  for  natural  science.  One  is  worn 
out  with  thinking  and  incapable  of  producing  thought, 
yet  quite  equal  to  the  reception  of  new  thoughts.  One 
is  satiated  with  poetry,  yet  grasps  after  prose  reading. 
So  it  is  with  bodily  activity.  During  the  day  we 
have  become  fatigued  with  one-sided,  heavy  bodily 
labor ;  in  the  evening,  however,  we  have  forced  our- 
selves to  go  to  the  gymnastic  society,  and  after  an 
hours  exercise  returned  fresh  and  newly  strengthened  ; 
provided  neither  the  one  nor  the  other  be  carried  to 
excess,  the  change  from  bodily  to  mental  activity 
naturally  affords  the  greatest  recreation.  This  ex- 
plains the  fact  that  children  whose  activity  is  divided 
between  study  and  labor  learn  much  quicker  and  easier 
than  those  who  only  study,  and  that  they  never  become 
weary  of  school.  On  account  of  this  school  weariness, 
an  interruption  of  from  one  to  more  years  has  been 
proposed,  but  why  rack  the  brains  for  the  cure  of  an 
evil  whose  cause  can  be  so  casil}^  remedied  ?  Let  in- 
dustrial instruction  be  introduced,  and  the  children  will 
learn  more  rapidly  and  easily,  and  will  not  become 


INDUSTRIAL   INSTRUCTION.  105 

weary.  An  intsiTuption  in  the  attendance  at  school 
is  disadvantageous  to  the  children,  and  must  cause 
great  difficulties  for  the  parents.  It  will  not  and  can 
not  be  denied  that  the  physical  injuries  of  our  present 
school  of  theoretical  study,  viz.,  mental  over-exertion 
and  weariness,  precocity  and  satiety,  may  be  avoided 
by  industrial  instruction.  This  indisputable  advantage 
alone  should  be  sufficient  to  make  the  introduction  of 
this  instruction  desirable,  for  mental  over-exertion, 
precocity,  and  satiety  render  the  formation  of  char- 
acter quite  impossible.  Industrial  instruction,  ex- 
tended through  all  grades  of  the  school,  even  to  profes- 
sional and  scientific  subjects,  would  be  the  best  means 
of  avoiding  overburdening.  Overburdening  consists 
partly  in  too  much  abstract,  theoretical  instruction  in 
general,  but  also  partly  in  one-sided,  disconnected, 
uninteresting  excess  of  this  instruction.  By  the  in- 
troduction and  union  of  industrial  with  theoretical 
instruction,  a  central  point  and  interest  for  many 
otherwise  separate  subjects  might  be  created,  and  the 
one-sidedness  of  all  the  instruction  prevented.  In 
consequence  of  the  change  between  bodily  and  mental 
activity^  and  the  resulting  mental  freshness,  and  because 
of  the  cancentration  of  instruction  with  the  increased 
interest,  the  children  and  youth  would  more  readily 
master  the  matter  of  theoretical  instruction;  the  hours 
for  study  could  be  shortened,  and  still  the  aim  of  7nen~ 
tal  study  attained. 


106  INDUSTRIAL   INSTRUCTION. 


Yin.       INCREASE    OF    HOURS    FOR    INSTRUCTION, 

We  know  very  well  that  the  opponents  of  industrial 
instruction  assert  the  very  opposite  of  what  we  have 
just  proved,  and  say  that  without  additional  time,  this 
new  subject  can  not  be  introduced.  We  dispute  this, 
and  beg  leave  to  present  some  reasons  for  our  opinion 
that  industrial  instruction,  which  is  quite  as  much  a 
new  method  of  teaching  as  a  new  subject  of  instruction, 
secures  to  the  children  a  much  quicker,  easier,  and 
more  thorough  knowledge  than  theoretical  instruction, 
and,  what  is  more  important,  it  teaches  the  pupils  to 
seek  and  find  the  truth. 

The  principal  point  in  all  instruction  is  that  the  pupil 
shall  have  an  interest  in  it.  The  Herbartian  pedagogy 
seeks  to  awaken  this  interest  by  the  establishment  of 
an  aim  in  teaching,  and  at  the  same  time  to  create 
thereby  an  interest,  a  will,  in  the  pupil.  The  pupil 
must  know  why  he  is  active  ;  he  must  have  the  benefit 
of  his  activity  before  his  eyes.  The  demand  of  Come- 
nius,  that  "nothing  of  which  the  use  is  not  perceptible 
shall  be  taught,"  is  hereby  to  an  extent  met.  In  itself, 
the  whole  argument  is  quite  correct.  In  the  abstract 
instruction  of  the  school  for  study,  however,  the  aim 
of  teaching  is  almost  entirely  theoretical,  the  practical 
benefit  of  which  the  pupil  does  not  perceive,  because 
it  lies  too  far  off  in  the  outside  life  of  which  the  child 
as  yet  understands  nothing.  If  the  use  of  an  aim  can 
not  be  comprehended,  of  what  benefit  is  its  establish- 


INDUSTRIAL    INSTRUCTION,  107 

ment?  Practical  benefit  is  that  which  moves  the  child, 
and  is  that  after  which  it  inquires.  For  the  training 
of  unselfish  men,  to  ignore  the  child's  stand-point  of 
utility  indicates  a  misconception  of  child  nature.  An 
unselfish  man  can  not  be  trained  by  ignoring  or  attack- 
ing the  natural,  positively  authorized  egotism  of  chil- 
dren ;  but  only  by  turning  this  selfishness  into  the  right 
channel,  and  bringing  it  up  to  that  humanity  which 
desires  no  more  for  itself  than  it  grants  to  others,  and 
asks  for  others  what  it  wishes  for  itself.  Like  the  will, 
egotism  must  not  be  broken,  but  guided.  Moreover, 
the  question  of  children,  "  Of  what  use  is  that?"  arises 
just  as  much  from  an  innate  desire  for  knowledge  as 
from  egotism.  It  is  the  question  regarding  purpose.  To 
put  them  off,  or  not  to  answer  them,  is  to  deaden  the 
instinctive  desire  for  knowledge,  and  to  make  inactive 
dreamers  of  children.  The  theoretical  aims  of  teachins: 
in  the  school  are  not  generally  final  aims.  Final  aims 
can  often  be  only  practical  activities  and  their  prod- 
ucts. If  we  establish  labor  and  its  products  as  aims 
for  teaching,  we  have,  for  many  cases,  marked  a  pur- 
pose which  the  pupil  recognizes,  and  by  which  indirect 
theoretical  aims  receive  a  support.  In  this  way,  the 
greatest  possible  interest  and  desire  on  the  part  of  the 
pupil  will  be  created.  The  benefit  is  plain  to  be  seen^ 
and  if  it  is  united  with  theoretical  information,  the 
pupil  knows  why  and  to  what  purpose  he  musi  learn 
these  things.  No  artificial  exterior  motive  is  neces- 
sary, it  lies  in  the  thing  itself. 


108  INDUSTRIAL    INSTRUCTION. 

"True  education  of  mankind,  education  by  devel- 
opment, must  begin  with  the  fact ;  the  act,  with  the 
doing,  must  germinate  in  it,  must  grow  thence  and  be 
founded  upon  it,"  says  Froebel. 

Because,  by  industrial  instruction,  clear  and  recog- 
nizable aims  of  teaching  and  learning,  with  manifest 
advantages,  are  esbiblished,  and  the  interest  of  the 
student  greatly  aroused  thereby,  and  a  strong  desire  is 
aroused  and  guided  to  definite  ends  ;  because,  further- 
more, industrial  instruction,  as  we  have  already  shown, 
brings  into  play  a  greater  number  of  mental  and 
bodily  powers ;  therefore,  it  must  secure  a  quicker, 
easier,  and  more  thorough  knowledge.  Furthermore, 
since  by  no  other  instruction  the  self-activity  of  the 
pupil  can  be  greater  than  by  this,  then  in  the  highest 
degree  and  in  the  very  best  manner  it  must  be  cal- 
culated to  promote  self-reflection,  invention,  combina- 
tion, inference,  and  judgment. 

"The  mind,  which  by  the  otherwise  evil  kind  of 
teaching  is  constantly  trained  to  act  according  to  for- 
eign precepts,  revives  by  industrial  instruction,  catches 
ideas,  and  invents  means  to  p'erfect  them,"  says  Salz- 
mann ;  and  Kousseau  was  right  when  he  said,  "An 
hour's  work  will  teach  your  pupil  more  things  than  he 
can  remember  from  a  whole  day's  explanation." 

In  oi'der  to  secure  time  for  industrial  instruction,  it 
is  not  necessary  to  increase  the  hours  of  instruction, 
as  the  time  devoted  to  this  su])ject  may  be  gained  by 
the  shortening  of  the  time  for  theoretical  instruction. 


INDUSTRIAL    INSTRUCTION.  109 

Should  this  be  impossible,  a  supposition  which  is  very 
contradictory,  then  it  would  not  l)e  necessary  to  increase 
the  time,  but  to  exclude  from  the  school  such  subjects 
as  have  the  least  educational  worth.  We  may  mention 
as  such  doctrinal  teaching  and  history.  In  a  state  which 
does  not  wish  to  violate  the  palladium  of  freedom  of 
belief  and  conscience,  systems  of  belief  do  not  belong 
in  the  schools,  and,  in  the  grades  of  the  public  school, 
history  can  be  nothing  but  political  or  social  dogma. 

Of  history,  understood  as  the  inner  foundation  of 
social  events,  the  child  can  grasp  almost  nothing, 
because  self-acquired  concepts  necessary  to  the  com- 
prehension of  the  subject  are  lacking.  Instruction  in 
history  must  be  transferred  to  higher  grades,  where 
the  mind  is  more  mature.  Only  in  this  way  can  the 
problem  of  method  of  instruction  in  history  be  satisfac- 
torily solved. 

Of  the  educational  value  of  instruction  in  doctrine 
and  dogma,  it  is  unnecessary  to  give  any  information. 
On  every  page  of  history  the  answer  is  written  in  let- 
ters of  blood,  for  him  who  understands  to  read. 

If  school  subjects  are*  chosen  according  to  the  order 
of  their  value  in  social  life  and  in  human  culture,  no 
question  as  to  whether  industrial  instruction  shall  find 
a  place  will  be  raised ;  the  question  will  rather  be 
whether  other  subjects  can  find  a  place  on  the  school 
programme. 

After  what  has  been  said,  we  can  confidently  leave 
the  reader  to  judge  of  the  value  of  the  assertion,  that 


110  INDUSTRIAL   INSTRUCTION. 

by  the  introduction  of  industrial  instruction  the  aim 
of  the  school  for  study  will  not  be  readied.  If  this 
assertion  were  well  grounded,  it  would  prove  nothing 
against  industrial  instruction,  as  it  would  not  by  any 
means  be  proved  that  the  aims  of  the  present  school 
for  study  are  the  only  right  and  infallible  ones. 

By  industrial  instruction,  says  one,  the  number  of 
subjects  will  be  increased,  but  the  thoroughness  and 
educative  influence  upon  the  pupil  will  be  diminished. 
The  inference  from  this  is,  that  the  less  instruction  is 
extended  to  diflerent  subjects,  the  more  efiectively  it 
works.  According  to  this,  a  school  with  one  subject 
must  secure  to  the  pupil  the  greatest  thoroughness  and 
the  greatest  educative  influence.  From  many  subjects, 
then,  must  this  one  be  chosen.  By  what  standard  shall 
this  choice  be  determined  ?  By  the  educational  and 
social  value  of  the  subject.  Agreed  !  Now,  according 
to  our  expose,  what  must  this  subject  be?  Indus- 
trial instruction  will  certainly  increase  the  number  of 
subjects,  but  only  outwardly ;  in  reality,  it  will  not 
increase  the  variety,  it  will  create  living  relations  with 
this  variety,  wdiile  the  thoroughness  and  educative  in- 
fluence upon  the  pupil  vviU  not  be  diminished,  but  must 
be  increased. 

IX.       HAND   LABOR   SHOULD   BE   VACATION   EMPLOYMENT, 
AND    IN    CHILDHOOD    MERELY    PLAY. 

This  obiection  is  l)rouij:ht  aij^ainst  industrial  instruc- 
tion.     liemarkable,  indeed  !  very  remarkable  !     Pland 


INDUSTRIAL   INSTRUCTION.  Ill 

labor,  which,  as  a  subject  of  instruction,  is  utterly 
worthless,  and  also  as  such  affects  the  health  injuriously, 
is  good  enough  for  play  and  vacation  employment.  A 
glance  into  the  peculiarities  of  child  nature  has  pro- 
vided the  opponents  with  this  knowledge.  They  have 
doubtless  remarked  that  in  vacation  and  during  their 
playtime,  children  gladly  work  at  something,  and  that 
they  are  happy  in  building  and  constructing.  Hence, 
they  shall  do  so  in  vacation  and  in  play,  but  not  in 
school.  What  a  conclusion  !  We  do  not  make  it,  but 
it  must  be  made  by  the  opponents,  who  recommend 
hand  labor  as  vacation  emploj^ment  and  play. 

Why  hand  labor  shall  be  only  vacation  employment 
and  play,  we  do  not  learn.  Indeed,  it  would  be  very 
hard  to  say.  Has  perhaps  hand  labor  more  remote 
reference  to  the  life  of  the  child,  than  arithmetic  and 
writing,  geography  and  history  ?  Or  are  the  relations 
of  hand  labor  to  life  less  intelligible  to  the  child  than 
those  between  theoretical  knowledge  and  life  ? 

Indeed,  in  order  to  hear  the  answer  from  every  mouth, 
it  is  only  necessary  to  put  the  question.  The  relations 
of  hand  labor  to  life  are  much  nearer  than  those  of 
theoretical  instruction,  and  are  incomparably  easier 
to  comprehend.  Daily  food  and  drink,  shelter  and 
clothing,  are  necessary ;  and  in  order  to  procure  them, 
labor  is  necessary,  for  all  school  knowledge  cannot  con- 
jure them. 

That  for  hand  labor  children  have  a  very  great,  and 
for  theoretical   instruction    a  very  limited  interest  isi 


112  INDUSTRIAL    INSTRUCTION. 

taught  by  all  psycho-physiological  laws,  and  confirmed 
by  experience.  Therefore,  must  hand  labor  be  play, 
and  mental  labor  bloody  earnest,  as  it  is  made  by  the 
school,  and  as  teachers  specially  wish  it  to  be  made? 

Our  conviction  is,  that  the  future  will  reverse  the 
present  relation  between  practical  and  theoretical  in- 
struction for  childhood.  Then  the  principal  thing  will 
be  labor  [construction]  ;  and  in  proportion  as  labor 
awakens  in  the  child  an  interest  and  a  sense  of  need, 
will  theoretical  instruction  be  added  to  it. 

We  cannot  deny  that  at  present  children  have  to 
learn  much  for  which  they  have  neither  a  sense  of  need 
nor  interest.  By  a  suggestion  regarding  social  neces- 
sity, this  compulsion  may  be  justified,  but  it  can  never 
be  supported  by  pedagogic  reasons.  It  is  a  violation  of 
the  course  of  development  of  child  nature,  and  stands 
in  contradiction  to  a  developing  education.  Hence,  in 
order  to  create  a  sense  of  need  and  an  interest  in  the 
child,  the  task  of  pedagogy  must  be  to  do  away  with 
this  compulsion.  For  many  subjects,  this  can  be  done 
by  labor ;  and  nearly  all  subjects,  at  least  in  reference 
to  labor,  can  be  made  voluntary.  If  any  subject  is 
fitted  to  become  the  central  point  of  instruction,  surely 
it  is  la[)or  and  its  products. 

We  know  well  that  not  all  theoretical  instruction  can 
be  united  to  hand  labor,  but  much  can  be  connected 
with  it,  and  nearly  all  branches  can  find  in  it  a  natural 
focal  point.  All  the  theoretical  instruction  which  can 
be,  ought  to  be  united  to  labor ;  that  which  is  not  con- 


INDUSTRIAL    INSTRUCTION.  113 

nected,  should  either  be  placed  in  relation  to  it,  or 
should  lead  up  to  it.  For  the  lower  school  grades,  it 
is  essential  that  the  theory  grow  out  of  the  practice ; 
for  the  higher  grades,  theory  may  precede  practice, 
but  must  pass  over  into  it.  Neither  in  life  nor  in  in- 
struction should  practice  and  theory  be  separated. 

By  observing  these  principles  in  instruction,  we 
place  ourselves  in  harmony  with  the  process  of  human 
development.  So  far  as  we  can  follow  this  process  of 
development  do  we  always  see  that  theory  has  grown 
out  of  practice,  and  science  out  of  life,  and  that  in  life 
and  practice  both  have  found  again  their  realization 
and  their  test.  Now,  if  it  be  true  that  the  child  in  a 
lessened  manner  passes  throusfh  all  the  stao-es  of  devel- 
opment  of  mankind,  then  in  the  formation  of  childish 
knowledge  the  process  to  be  pursued  must  be  similar 
to  that  which  has  served  in  the  formation  of  treasures 
of  knowledge  possessed  by  mankind.  By  means  of 
effort,  labor,  and  the  predominating  use  of  its  physical 
powers,  the  child  must  be  guided  to  knowledge  and 
understanding.  He  must  be  guided  in  the  same  w\iy 
in  which  mankind  for  thousands  of  years  has  uncon- 
sciously gone,  and  in  which,  in  order  to  reach  the  truth, 
the  exact  sciences  have,  since  Bacon  of  Yerulam,  con- 
sciously proceeded,  viz.,  the  way  of  induction.  If 
truths  are  oifered  the  child  without  trouble  on  his  part, 
i.  e.,  if  theory  is  always  allowed  to  precede,  and  never 
to  pass  over  into  practice,  then,  first,  the  truths  do 
not  cling  to  the  child ;  second,  they  are  of  no  value  to 


114  INDUSTRIAL   INSTRUCTION. 

him ;  third,  the  child  never  learns  to  value  the  labor 
of  preceding  generations  for  the  establishment  of 
knowledge  and  understanding,  and,  what  is  worst  of 
all,  he  becomes  satiated. 

Notwithstanding  all  political  and  religious  differences 
of  individual  aims,  all  later  pedagogy  proceeding  from 
the  empiricism  of  Bacon  has  more  or  less  clearly,  con- 
sciously and  unconsciously,  supported  the  proposition. 
No  theory  without  foregoing  practice ;  derivation  of 
the  former  from  the  latter ;  application  of  theory  in 
the  practice.  Hence  Ratich  and  Comenius  promulgate 
object  instruction,  and  the  latter  the  value  of  hand 
labor  as  well ;  hence  the  pietists  introduce  object  and 
labor  instruction  into  pedagogical  practice,  while  the 
philanthropists  take  up  both,  and  carry  object  instruc- 
tion further  ;  hence,  cries  Rousseau,  "  Things  !  things  ! 
Do  not  instruct  by  words,  but  by  facts."  Hence  is 
Pestalozzi  the  apostle  of  objective  instruction. 

In  an  article  in  the  Swiss  journal,^  Pestalozzi  ex- 
presses his  opinion  upon  the  question  of  practical  and 
theoretical  instruction.  In  the  second  volume,  he 
states  his  views  as  follows  :  — 

."Man  must  seek  his  chief  teaching  in  his  chief  work, 
and  not  allow  the  empty  teaching  of  the  head  to  i^recede 
the  labor  of  the  hand;  he  must  find  out  his  system  of 
teaching  principally  from  his  work,  and  not  be  w^illing 
to  base  his  w^ork  upon  given  rules ;  hence  must  the 

'  Mann.  Pestalozzi's  Selected  Works,  Vol.  III. 


INDUSTRIAL   INSTRUCTION,  115 

early  teaching  of  every  child  relate  to  individual  labor, 
and  it  may  be  well  to  limit  it,  so  that  neither  teacher 
nor  child  can  easily  wander  far  from  it. 

"My  readers,  we  certainly  have  to  thank  the  nonsense 
with  which  our  children's  early  years  are  diverted  from 
labor  and  directed  towards  books  for  a  world  full  of 
blockheads ;  and  certainly  the  misery  of  a  sickly  age 
of  an  infinite  number  of  human  beings  is  prepared  for 
them  in  the  foreign,  useless,  unserviceable,  indigest- 
ible, one-sided,  poorly  reflected  knowledge  of  their 
early  years." 

X.      SCHOOL    HAND    LABOR    AND    CHOICE    OF    A    PROFES- 
SION. 

To  prepare  the  pupil  whom  it  gives  up  to  life,  for 
education  in  hand  labor,  is  said  to  be  the  duty  of  the 
school,  but  its  duty  is  not  to  exercise  and  train  him  in 
hand  labor.  Why  it  should  be  the  duty  of  the  school 
to  make  preparation  for  training  in  hand  labor,  and  not 
to  undertake  this  training  itself,  it  is  difficult  to  per- 
ceive. But  every  one  can  easily  understand  that  it  is 
the  duty  of  the  school  to  secure  to  the  children  the 
elements  of  professional  as  well  as  mental  training. 
In  the  end,  a  people  does  not  live  by  literature,  sci- 
ence, and  art,  but  by  labor;  and  the  small  per 
cent^   of  us  possessing    middle    and  higher  education 

'  According  to  Dr.  Engel,  Journal  of  the  Imperial  Prussian  Bu- 
reau of  Statistics,  in  1871,  the  male  population  over  ten  years 
of  age  in  the  Prussian  states  were   distributed  in  the  different 


116  INDUSTRIAL   IXSTRUCTION. 

can  enjoy  these  beautiful  things  only  because  the  hand 
labor  of  the  great  mass  of  the  people  makes  it  possi- 
ble. Then,  from  a  social,  political  stand-point,  it  could 
be  more  easily  and  with  more  valid  reasons  proved  that 
the  education  provided  by  the  state  ought  to  consider 
hand  labor  from  the  first,  than  it  could  be  shown  that 
from  the  first  it  must  exclusively  provide  for  mental 
training. 

We  really  do  not  know  what  is  to  be  understood 
by  a  preparation  for  education  in  hand  labor,  but  we 
do  know  that  even  with  the  best  intentions,  our  present 
school  instruction  can  not  be  regarded  as  such  a  prepa- 
ration;  but  on  the  contrary,  it  must  be  regarded  as  an 
essential  factor  for  the  disuse  of  hand  labor.  Upon 
this  all  men  of  practical  experience  are  agreed. 

It  is  asserted  by  the  opponents  that  if  the  school 
co-operates  in  the  choice  of  a  profession,  it  fulfils  its 
duties  towards  the  trades.     Opinions  difier  upon  the 

grades  of  education  as  they  are  ordinarily  distinguished,  as  fol- 
lows :  — 

Classes. 

1.  Highest  Education  . 

2.  Middle 

3.  Elementary    " 

4.  Alphabet 

Then,  3  and  4  together,  equal  90  per  cent  of  the  population  pos- 
sessing only  elementary  education,  or  none  at  all. 

If  the  female  population  were  reckoned,  there  would  be  a  still 
lower  ratio  of  higher  and  middle  and  a  greater  proportion  of  the 
lower.  (See  Starke,  Privy  Councilor  of  Justice,  Crime,  and  Crim- 
inals in  Prussia,  from  1854-78.) 


Persons. 

Per  Cent. 

93,000  . 

. 

1,053 

193,000  . 

. 

2,122 

7,885,423  . 

86,703 

933,274  . 

. 

10,152 

INDUSTRIAL   INSTRUCTION.  117 

how  of  this  co-operation.  They  have  only  this  in  com- 
mon, that  the  teacher,  because  he  best  knows  the 
pupil's  talents  and  inclinations,  by  his  advice  to  the 
parents  and  to  the  pupil  shall  exercise  this  co-operation. 
We  shall  soon  see  how  for  this  belief  is  true.  Here  we 
shall  merely  suggest  the  impossibility  of  giving  this 
advice  wherever  there  are  graded  schools,  or  where 
teachers  are  assigned  special  branches  only,  and  where 
municipal  relations  exist.  The  teachers  of  which 
branch  should  and  will  undertake  this  co-operation? 
And  the  teachers  of  which  grade  will  do  it,  for  the 
children  go  out  into  life  from  different  grades  ?  In  this 
respect,  the  teacher  of  an  ungraded  school  in  a  small 
village  can  do  the  most.  In  large  places,  knowledge 
of  the  social  relations  and  conditions  of  the  parents  is 
out  of  the  way  of  the  teacher,  and  on  this  knowledge 
the  whole  co-operation  must  be  based.  Also,  in  small 
places,  where  the  teacher  very  well  understands  the 
condition  of  the  parents,  this  co-operation  in  the  choice 
of  a  callins:  for  children  of  the  better  classes  will  not  be 
possible,  because  the  parents  will  not  listen  to  the 
advice  of  the  teacher.  The  son  must  become  whatever 
the  parental  property  or  parental  opinion  determines. 
In  the  choice  of  a  profession,  practically  nothing  of 
all  the  co-operation  with  the  school  remains.  We 
must,  therefore,  look  for  the  school  to  play  a  more 
effective  part  in  the  choice  of  a  profession. 

While,  from  the   co-operation  of  the   school  in  the 
choice  of  a  profession,  some  understand  that  the  school 


118  INDUSTRIAL   INSTRUCTION. 

provides  for  it  in  the  manner  just  mentioned,  —  that 
each  pupil  shall  pursue  the  calling  for  which  he  is  fitted, 
and  that  poor  but  gifted  children  shall,  by  higher  cul- 
ture, be  raised  to  a  better  social  position,  —  others 
assign  to  the  school  the  task  of  guiding  more  people 
to  right  callings.  By  right  calling,  however,  they  un- 
derstand, above  all,  a  handicraft,  also,  perhaps,  a  com- 
mercial or  industrial  business,  but  not  the  callings  of 
teachers,  scholars,  and  officials ;  in  short,  not  the  so- 
called  liberal  professions.  Every  one  who  does  not 
wish  to  see  men  divided  into  castes  will  declare  him- 
self in  harmony  with  the  first-mentioned  stand-point, 
which,  from  the  point  of  view  of  the  man,  as  well  as 
of  the  educator  and  the  national  economist,  is  unassail- 
able. We  do  not  dream,  therefore,  of  disputing  it, 
but  we  cannot  refuse  to  suggest  that  in  the  society  of 
the  present  day,  insurmountable  difficulties  stand  in 
the  way  of  the  free  choice  of  a  profession.  The  choice 
of  a  profession  to-day  is  not  alone  determined,  and 
even  not  always  influenced,  by  predominating  talents/ 
and  inclinations;  but  almost  exclusively  by  reference) 
to  the  income  and  social  position  which  it  allows.' 
If  a  member  of  a  prominent  family  have  ever  so 
much  talent  and  inclination  for  carpentry,  he  can  not 
become  a  joiner,  because  that  is  not  a  calling  which 
secures  to  its  possessor  a  desirable  social  position. 
Hence,  so  long  as  the  diifercnt  human  activities  are  so 
unequally  valued  economically  and  morally,  freedom 
in  the  choice  of  a  profession  is  a  delusion. 


INDUSTRIAL   INSTRUCTION.  ,  119 

The  advocates  of  the  second  stand-point  start  from  the 
fact  that  we  are  suffering  from  an  over-production  of 
intelligence.  They  demand,  therefore,  that  the  school 
shall  induce  tradesmen  not  to  have  their  sons  study, 
but  to  learn  handicraft,  for  a  handicraft,  they  say,  has 
a  golden  floor. 

We  may  remark  that  not  mechanics,  but  scholars, 
officials,  advocates  of  liberal  professions,  talk  in  this 
way.  Hand  laborers  themselves,  even  with  spectacled 
eyes,  can  no  longer  discover  the  golden  floor  of  their 
calling ;  they  come  rather  in  continually  augmented 
numbers  to  the  "dogs,"  or  in  other  words,  they  sink 
to  the  proletarian  classes.  We  never  hear  a  mechanic 
speak  of  the  golden  floor  of  his  profession.  It  only 
exists  for  modern  Don  Quixotes  and  social  mounte- 
banks. Whoever  can  still  speak  of  it  must  have 
passed  the  last  thirty  years  of  social  development  in 
an  enchanted  castle.  The  large  manufactory  has  torn 
away  the  golden  floor,  large  enterprises  stand  upon  it, 
and  hand  labor  will  never  again  get  it  back.  Mechan- 
ics who  direct  their  sons  to  the  liberal  professions  know 
very  well  why  they  do  so.  They  wish  to  preserve 
them  from  the  misery  of  the  mechanic's  position.  The 
parents,  especially  those  of  the  lower  and  middle 
classes,  in  the  choice  of  a  profession  for  their  children 
are  guided  not  by  vanity,  but  by  a  wish  to  make  the 
children  happy,  happier  than  they  themselves  are. 
Since  the  parents  very  rightly  do  not  perceive  this  hap- 
piness in  the  position  of  an  ordinary  paid  laborer  nor 


120  .  INDUSTRIAL    INSTRUCTION. 

of  a  mechanic,  they  assign  their  sons  to  the  liberal 
professions,  to  be  scholars,  teachers,  officials,  or  to 
that  army  of  employees  on  railroads,  in  steamboats, 
offices,  etc. 

During  the  last  fifteen  years  the  crowding  into  the 
liberal  professions  has  become  so  great  that  a  very  per- 
ceptible competition  already  prevails,  but  increasing 
numbers  still  press  mlo  them.  Between  1871  and 
1881,  the  number  of  students  in  the  German  univer- 
sities increased  by  six  thousand. 

They  amounted  to,  — 

1871-72  14,676 

1872-73  15,190 

1873-74 15,809 

1874-75 15,945 

1875-76  16,191 

1876-77 16,807 

1877-78  17,611 

1878-79 18,804 

1879-80 20,042 

1880-81  21,163 

1881-82 22,038 


The  number  of  high-school  pupils,  as  well  as  those 
of  the  real  school,  gymnasium,  technical  and  polytech- 
nical  institutions,  has  increased  in  the  same  proportion. 
In  other  countries  it  is  no  better  than  in  Germany.  In 
the  Siviss  Journal,  1884,  an  architect  stated  that  in  a 
place  like  Zurich,  often  forty,  fifty,  even  ninety  appli- 
cants presented  themselves  for  a  vacant  position,  or 
for  employment  for  a  few  months.  "Hereupon,"  he 
continues,  "  since  it  is  no  better  abroad,  and  in  many 


INDUSTRIAL    INSTRUCTION.  121 

places  even  worse,  the  consolation  of  emigration  van- 
ishes. By  a  few  comparative  calculations,  we  must 
conclude  that  if  for  ten  years  not  an  architect  were  to 
be  fitted  for  the  calling,  there  would  still  be  a  lack  of 
work  and  an  over-supply  of  men."  The  German  impe- 
rial government  has  recently  disclosed  the  fact  that 
there  are  in  Germany  6,000  unpaid  referees  (counsel- 
lors), and  that  to  4,204  positions  for  magistrates  and 
state  advocates,  4,684  candidates  came.  Hence,  we 
should  not  thoughtlessly  study.  We  shall  soon  be  able 
to  employ  a  doctor  as  cheaply  as  a  factory  hand.  As 
we  know  by  experience,  polytechnic  students  were, 
a  few  years  ago,  at  a  low  discount.  With  every  day 
the  army  of  mental  laborers,  as  well  as  that  of  hand 
laborers,  increases.  How  will  it  end?  If  the  army  of 
mental  laborers  become  dissatisfied,  and  declare  war 
upon  society,  then  woe  be  to  it ;  then  it  is  lost.  No 
social  structure,  even  the  most  strongly  formed,  has  ever 
yet  withstood  the  united  siege  of  head  and  hand  laborers. 
Mental  laborers  have,  however,  already  become  dis- 
satisfied. A  short  time  ago,  a  Vienna  journalist  de- 
scribed them  in  a  masterly  manner.  Among  other 
things,  he  said:  "If  the  anarchists  were  to  besiege 
Vienna,  I  should  not  on  that  account  lose  all  self-con- 
trol ;  but  this  small  mass  of  discontented,  property- 
less  intelligences  seems  to  me  fearful,  a  true  scourge 
of  God.  Perhaps  I  am  too  anxious.  Perhaps  I 
am  wrong  to  say,  Who  shall  be  the  defence  of  your 
future,  who  shall  protect  us,  who  shall  resist  the  oppo- 


122  INDUSTRIAL  INSTRUCTION. 

sition  of  pernicious  theories?  All  these  fiery  cheru- 
bim of  good  inclinations  have  become  discouraged  and 
disappointed  strugglers.  Why  shall  they  be  enthusi- 
astic for  us  ?  What  have  we  to  offer  them  ?  As  the 
times  now  are,  have  we  any  hope,  any  inducement 
for  them?  Have  they  themselves,  upon  the  whole,  a 
fortune,  a  property,  any  kind  of  interest  to  hold  from 
us?" 

The  danger  from  mental  laborers  which  threatens 
present  society  is  certainly  great ;  but  by  warning  peo- 
ple against  the  liberal  professions,  and  advising  the 
adoption  of  trades  and  business  callings,  we  cannot 
remedy  the  over-production  of  intelligent  people. 

Over-production  of  intelligence  is  only  a  wave  of  the 
aofitated  sea  of  the  social  world.  This  sea  can  not  be 
stilled  by  preaching  against  mental  over-production, 
and  by  recommending  that  the  stream  of  superfluous 
humanity  be  guided  to  trades,  for,  indeed,  over-pro- 
duction in  the  trades  has  created  the  over-production 
of  intelligence.  To  preach  that  people  shall  turn  to 
trades  and  away  from  the  liberal  professions  is  to  order 
the  stream  to  flow  to  its  source,  instead  of  to  the  sea.^ 

By  pushing  to  and  fro  on  the  labor  market,  human 
merchandise  made  superfluous  by  our  present  form  of 
society,  the  labor  question  will  not  be  solved,  but  only 
by  removing  the  cause  which  makes  superfluous  men 
who  are  willing  to  labor. 

'  Only  those  can  trust  to  the  efficacy  of  such  a  course  who  believe 
that  social  problems  can  be  solved  by  tricks  of  legerdemain. 


INDUSTRIAL   INSTRUCTION.  123 

Furthermore,  the  propositions  mentioned  do  not  in 
the  least  affect  the  choice  of  a  profession.  To  lead 
more  people  to  find  their  proper  callings  can  only 
mean  to  lead  more  people  to  those  callings  to  which 
they,  in  consequence  of  their  faculties  and  talents, 
feel  themselves  drawn,  in  which  they  can  use  their 
physical  and  mental  qualities  for  their  own  welfare 
as  well  as  for  that*  of  society,  and  which,  therefore, 
secures  to  them  the  most  satisfaction. 

How  each  one  can  obtain  that  calling  most  nearly 
corresponding  to  his  natural  powers,  is  the  vital  ques- 
tion in  the  choice  of  a  profession. 

Now,  it  is  clear  that  the  propositions  mentioned 
will  not  meet  nor  in  any  way  answer  this  question. 
If  the  representatives  of  the  liberal  professions  advise 
those  who  wish  to  devote  themselves  to  the  same  to 
turn  to  trades,  such  a  proceeding  would  smack,  ^?'S^, 
of  selfishness  ;  and  secondly^  would  have  no  more  bear- 
ing upon  the  solution  of  the  problem  of  choice  of  a 
profession  than  if  the  representatives  of  trades,  in 
order  to  turn  competition  from  their  callings,  should 
advise  that  all  of  those  who  thought  to  devote  them- 
selves to  trades  should  betake  themselves  to  the  liberal 
professions. 

Why  do  so  many  people  miss  their  callings  ?  Be- 
cause neither  they  themselves,  nor  their  teachers,  nor 
their  parents  know  their  talents,  because  neither  edu- 
cation nor  instruction  ofiers  opportunity  to  learn  to 
know  them.     When   have  the  powers  and   talents  of 


124  INDUSTRIAL   INSTRUCTION. 

pupils  been  able  to  show  and  prove  themselves?  In 
the  parents'  house  ?  Nearly  every  opportunity  there- 
for is  lacking.  In  the  school?  There  the  pupils  have 
only  to  learn  to  receive  and  to  reproduce;  there  they 
are  nourished  only  with  theoretical  knowledge  ;  there 
they  can  show  their  capability  to  receive  and  reproduce, 
but  can  not  show  their  abilities  for  creation  and  inven- 
tion. One  side  of  their  nature,  and,  indeed  for  most 
men,  exactly  that  upon  which  the  choice  of  a  calling 
depends,  the  practical,  active  side,  remains  unnoticed 
by  the  school,  and  for  want  of  exercise  can  not  make 
its  appearance. 

The  capacity  to  receive  and  reproduce  is  generally 
not  by  any  means  synonymous  with  mental  power. 
The  greatest  men  are  those  who  have  become  what 
they  are,  not  by  receiving,  but  by  independent  labor, 
reflection,  and  investigation.  This  capacity  stands 
higher  than  the  ability  to  receive  and  reproduce. 
This,  as  well  as  the  circumstance  that  in  the  school  not 
all  the  human  being,  but  only  a  part,  is  trained  to 
activity  and  developed,  explains  the  fact  that  so 
many  thorough  pupils  accomplish  very  little  in  life, 
while  the  poor  scholars  become,  perhaps,  celebrated 
and  able  men.  Indeed,  the  majority  of  the  most 
skilful  and  celebrated  men  were  bad  pupils.  If  we 
would  consent  to  deal  in  paradoxes,  we  might  say  to 
the  teachers,  "  Have  the  greatest  respect  for  the  poor 
pupils,  for  they  will  become  famous  men." 

If  the  school  will  contribute  anything  to  the  solution 


INDUSTRIAL   INSTRUCTION.  125 

of  the  problem  upon  the  choice  of  a  profession,  it  must 
allow  industrial  instruction  a  place  on  the  programme, 
and  so  free  instruction  from  one-sidedness.  Only  by 
industrial  instruction  will  it  be  possible  to  become  ac- 
quainted with  the  talents  and  powers  of  the  pupil,  and  to 
direct  him  towards  his  proper  calling.  Labor  will  also 
make  the  pupil  himself  conscious  of  his  capabilities. 
In  the  instruction,  the  difference  between  clever  and 
dull  pupils  will  become  equalized.  It  may,  perhaps,  be 
shown  that  the  pupil  who,  in  theoretical  instruction, 
is  skilful,  in  practical  work  is  awkward,  and  vice  versa. 
By  practical  employment,  the  mind  of  one  pupil  will 
best  develop ;  that  of  another,  by  theoretical  informa- 
tion. This  will  lead  to  a  correct  estimate  of  the  pupils 
among  each  other  and  on  the  part  of  the  teacher.  This 
correct  valuation  of  all  the  powers  must  be  in  the 
highest  degree  beneficial  to  school  life. 

XI.       THE    DECLINE    OF   THE    TEACHER's   POSITION. 

The  question.  By  whom  shall  industrial  instruction 
be  imparted  ?  is  by  the  majority  of  the  opponents  cor- 
rectly answered.  The  teacher,  and  not  hand  laborers 
who  are  pedagogically  untrained.  In  this  respect  they 
place  the  pedagogical  stand-point  at  the  head,  but  only 
in  order  to  more  effectively  unite  to  it  their  lamenta- 
tion over  the  decline  of  the  teacher's  position.  Even 
now,  they  say,  the  time  in  the  training  school  is  not 
sufficient  for  the  teacher  to  acquire  the  necessary  edu- 


126  INDUSTRIAL   INSTRUCTION. 

cation  ;  but  what  will  it  be  if  he  has  to  learn  carpentry, 
lock-making,  bookbinding,  turning,  carving,  etc.  ?  In 
this  case,  the  teacher  must  degenerate  into  a  me- 
chanic. He  will  become  a  bungler,  and  the  conscious- 
ness of  professional  dignity  will  be  lost.  What  a 
frightful  outlook  for  the  teacher's  position  !  Fortu- 
nately, it  is  too  fanciful.  Let  us  be  calm  !  The  learn- 
ing of  all  trades  in  their  full  extent  can  and  will  not 
be  necessary  ;  but  only  the  learning  of  the  elements  of" 
a  number  of  handicrafts,  or  rather,  we  shall  say,  of 
hand  labor.  The  elements  of  all  handicrafts^  however^, 
are  as  siniple  and  as  like  each  other  as  the  elements  of 
all  sciences  are  simple  and  like  each  other.  The  Klau- 
son  Cass  efforts  for  the  elevation  of  hand  labor  are 
depreciatingly  mentioned,  because  of  the  suggestion 
that  in  six  weeks,  from  five  to  seven  kinds  of  trades, 
each  of  which  requires  several  years'  apprenticeship, 
can  be  taught.  Now,  we  are  the  last  to  over-estimate 
the  value  of  the  Klauson  Cass  efforts  ;  they  will  not 
elevate  hand  labor,  because  it  can  not  be  elevated,  but 
only  transformed ;  but  they  have  proved  to  all  the 
world  that  for  learning  an  ordinary  handicraft  three  or 
four  years  are  not  necessary ;  that  in  a  few  months 
one  can  learn  several  kinds  of  hand  labor.  The  results 
of  every  course  of  industrial  instruction,  as  well  as 
the  performance  of  pupils  in  schools  for  hand  labor, 
support  this  evidence.  By  a  few  hours'  instruction, 
weekly,  in  the  different  departments  of  hand  labor,  it 
is  astonishing  to  an  impai-tial  person  what  readiness 


rNDUSTRIAL   IXSTRUCTION.  127 

children  will  in  a  short  time  acquire.  AVe  have  no  idea 
what  rich  treasures  of  practical  capability  lie  hidden  in 
our  children,  and  what  immense  productive  power  we, 
to  the  injury  of  the  children  and  of  the  nation,  allow 
to  be  arrested  and  perverted  to  dead  knowledge,  in- 
fectious weariness,  crippling  precocity,  and  poisonous 
idleness.     May  we  soon  gain  this  knowledge. 

Let  us  compare  the  quickness  and  ease  with  which 
children  appropriate  skill  and  practical  knowledge  with 
the  slowness  and  difficulty  with  which  they  advance 
in  mental  capacity  and  theoretical  knowledge.  If  we 
inquire  after  the  cause  of  this  slow  progress  in  .  the 
last,  and  the  quick  advance  in  the  first  case,  perhaps 
no  other  than  the  following  ground  of  explanation  can 
be  discovered. 

Child  nature  implies  action  rather  than  abstraction, 
meditation,  and  receiving ;  the  child's  interest  and 
capabilities  are  greater  for  practical  than  for  theoreti- 
cal instruction ;  by  the  first  he  is  better  satisfied  and 
incited  than  by  the  last. 

Now,  should  not  the  quickness  with  which  children 
advance  in  industrial  instruction,  and  the  pleasure 
with  which  they  work,  be  a  suggestion  to  educators 
reo^ardino^  the  excellence  and  naturalness  of  this 
instruction?  And  should  not  educators  who  make,  or 
pretend  to  make,  the  nature  of  the  child  the  ground- 
work of  their  educational  principles  and  efforts,  first 
of  all  turn  their  most  earnest  attention  to  this  subject? 
We  think  so. 


128  INDUSTRIAL    INSTRUCTION. 

The  Klauson  Cass  and  similar  efforts  were  not 
needed  specially  to  prove  that  a  few  months  are  quite 
sufficient  for  learning  the  elements  of  several  handi- 
crafts, for  we  have  ourselves  proved  this.  We  have 
learned  several  trades,  each  in  a  few  weeks,  so  well 
that  we  could  employ  ourselves  creditably  in  them. 

The  teacher's  profession  has  no  need  to  fear  this  new 
task ;  it  can  be  mastered,  and  will  not  lead  to  bun- 
gling and  to  loss  of  professional  dignity.  No  one  will 
say  that  one  who  has  a  skilful  hand,  and  is  experienced 
in  practical  things,  will  be  the  worse  teacher.  Why 
should  hand  labor  lead  to  bungling,  and  not  one  of 
the  superfluous  subjects  which  during  the  last  thirty 
years  have  been  admitted  to  the  programme  of  teach- 
ers' training?  We  might  just  as  correctly  say  that  for 
the  teacher  to  receive  only  the  elements  of  natural 
science  and  of  historical  and  mathematical  discipline 
leads  to  bunfrlins".  Bunglini?  in  teachino:  does  not  arise 
because  the  teacher  is  not  instructed  to  the  fullest  ex- 
tent in  all  sciences  and  skill,  but  it  arises  from  the  fact 
that  in  the  effort  to  give  them  a  great  deal,  the  elements 
are  very  carelessly  passed  over.  Bungling  arises  prin- 
cipally because  the  teacher  is  too  little  instructed  in  the 
art  of  using  these  elements  in  the  instruction^  and  can 
not  impart  to  the  pupil  that  which  is  of  value. 

It  never  can,  by  reasons  deduced  from  the  sub- 
ject itself,  be  proved  that  industrial  instruction  will 
cause  the  teacher  to  bungle  in  his  calling.  Accord- 
ing  to   what   we,    in   the  foregoing   paragraph,    have 


INDUSTRIAL   INSTRUCTION.  129 

stated  and  proved  in  reference  to  the  training  and 
educative  value  of  hand  labor,  we  are  authorized 
in  asserting  that  the  industrial  instruction  which  the 
teacher  receives  will  not  hinder,  but  considerably  ad- 
vance and  assist  him  in  his  calling.  Industrial  instruc- 
tion will  strengthen,  deepen,  broaden,  and  correct  his 
knowledge.  It  will  give  this  knowledge  the  first 
right  relation  to  life,  and  elevate  the  understanding  for 
life.  Quite  as  important  as  this  is  the  power  to  do, 
with  which  the  teacher  will  by  this  instruction  be  fur- 
nished. In  practical  things,  the  young  teacher  of  the 
present  day  is  really  a  child,  and  can  be  imposed  upon 
by  every  tradesman's  apprentice  or  farmer's  servant. 
His  practical  skill  will  make  a  great  difference  ;  in  the 
esteem  of  the  public  he  will  rise  not  a  little.  The 
increased  esteem  of  the  public,  with  a  feeling  of 
security  in  the  practical  things  of  life,  must  impart 
to  the  teacher  a  very  justifiable  feeling  of  self  respect. 
If  by  this  the  unauthorized  self-esteem  founded  upon 
school  knowledge,  instead  of  upon  social  and  moral 
worth,  should  be  lost,  it  would  only  prove  advan- 
tageous to  the  teacher's  position.  We  are  suffering 
generally  from  an  undue  estimation  of  dead  theories  as 
opposed  to  practical  living,  knowledge,  and  ability,  and 
to  the  social  and  moral  worth  of  men.  Yet,  perhaps, 
practical  living  knowledge  is  quite  as  great  and  surely 
quite  as  important  as  dead  theories  ;  and  without  ques- 
tion, he  who  only  knows  what  is  and  can  be  taught 
in  the  schools,  knows  very  little.     Very  many,  and  in 


130  INDUSTRIAL    INSTRUCTION. 

the  end  the  best,  things  can  not  he  taught  because 
they  can  not  be  phmncd  and  formuhited  into  theories. 
Above  all,  the  influences  which  move  the  present  time 
can  not  be  taught,  because  they  have  not  yet  become 
formulated  into  a  system. 

Industrial  instruction  will  not  make  a  blunderer  of 
a  teacher,  but  will  make  him  more  skilful  in  his  call- 
ing ;  and  out  of  the  practical  training  of  the  teach  erf 
more  profit  to  the  school  will  grow  than  out  of  learned 
awkwardness.  In  the  professional  art  school,  in  Vi- 
enna, it  has  been  found  that  a  young  man  who  has 
previously  followed  some  practical  avocation,  always 
finds  his  right  place  comparatively  quicker  in  his  new 
teacher's  position  (departmental  teacher  for  institu- 
tions in  which  apprentices  and  workmen  receive  a 
higher  professional  development)  than  the  one  who 
brings  w^th  him  merely  school  training.  Moreover, 
among  the  teachers  of  common  schools  the  same  is 
found  to  be  true.  We  may  here  remark  that  a  large 
number  of  prominent  educators  and  schoolmen  had 
been  practically  employed  before  their  educational 
activity  began. 

In  the  normal  school,  industrial  instruction  will  find 
a  place  without  theoretical  instruction  being  abridged. 
We  have  already  explained  the  reasons  for  this  (Chap- 
ter v.,  VIII.).  Here  we  shall  merely  remark  that  if 
industrial  instruction  has  been  pursued  in  all  the  pre- 
vious school  grades,  it  will  require  but  a  limited  place 
in  the  programme  of  the  training  school. 


INDUSTRIAL   INSTRUCTION.  131 

The  training  of  teachers  for  industrial  instruction 
offers  no  difficulty,  and  by  its  introduction  into  the 
school  will  not  (as  has  been  asserted)  by  any  means 
involve  the  necessity  for  two  kinds  of  teachers.  The 
teacher  can  very  well  master  the  new  task,  and  if  his 
prejudice  has  disappeared,  will  very  gladly  undertake 
it.  Probably  the  imparting  of  industrial  instruction 
will  become  a  favorite  employment  of  the  teacher, 
because  the  change  refreshes  and  the  labor  gladdens 
him. 

XII.      THE  UNION  OF    STUDY  AND  LABOR  IN   THE    SCHOOL. 

Just  as  in  the  public  school,  the  teacher  in  the  school 
of  study  is,  at  the  same  time,  to  be  the  teacher  in  the 
industrial  school,  so  study  and  labor  will  not  be  sepa- 
rated ;  thus  practice  and  theory  and  theory  and  practice 
will  go  hand  in  hand.  It  is  not  sufficient  that  the  work 
of  the  industrial  school  be  selected  according  to  peda- 
gogical principles  and  pursued  with  educational  pur- 
pose ;  the  instruction  of  the  school  for  study  must  also 
be  connected  with  it.  If  the  labor  of  the  industrial 
school  be  separated  from  theoretical  instruction,  then, 
notwithstanding  its  educational  purpose,  it  loses  much 
of  its  attraction  and  power  as  mental  training.  On  the 
other  hand,  if  the  theory  be  not  embodied  in  the  labor, 
the  pupil  will  not  be  awakened  to  the  real  life ;  the 
theory  will  die,  or  make  the  pupil  weary.  The  prin- 
ciple is  this :  let  that  which  has  been  created  by 
the  pupil  be  theoretically  comprehended,  and  let  that 


132  INDUSTRIAL   INSTRUCTION. 

which  is  theoretically  comprehended  be  constructed. 
In  creating,  let  the  mind  of  the  child  be  elevated  to 
higher  discernments  and  views,  and  let  what  is  mentally 
comprehended  be  physically  expressed,  so  that  it  may 
fix  itself  in  consciousness,  and  may  show  how  it  can  be 
converted  to  practical  use.  We  can  state  with  satisfac- 
tion that  the  advocates  who  wish  industrial  instruction 
to  be  pursued  as  preparation  for  trades,  without  an34 
reference  to  the  school,  are  very  few  in  number.  The 
predominating  number  of  the  friends  of  industrial  in- 
struction, although  they  wish  it  to  be  separated  from 
the  school  of  study,  wish  to  unite  it  with  theoretical 
information.  From  this  stand-point  to  the  organic 
union  of  study  and  labor  in  one  school  the  distance  is 
naturally  not  far.  The  present  condition  of  juxtaposi- 
tion is  grounded,  we  well  know,  on  the  actual  relations, 
but  it  is  nothing  more  than  a  necessary  expedient. 
As  has  been  demanded  by  several  great  educators, 
the  aim  must  be  to  secure  an  organic  combination. 
Francke  based  several  branches  of  instruction  upon 
labor.  Rousseau  advocated  the  instruction  of  Emile 
by  labor,  and  wished  to  see  the  two  united.  By  labor, 
an  interest  in  theoretical  instruction  Avill  be  created. 
Pestalozzi  says:  "This  A  B  C  of  the  exercise 'of 
the  rnn])s  (here  the  method  of  industrial  instruction 
is  understood)  must  naturally  be  united  and  brought 
into  harmony  with  the  ABC  of  sense  exercises,  and 
all  previous  exercises  of  thinking  with  the  exercises 
of  number,  and  teaching  of  form."     Fichte  demands 


INDUSTRIAL   INSTRUCTION.  133 

that  in  national  education,  study  and  labor  shall  be 
united. 

The  friends  of  industrial  instruction  who  wish  to  see 
the  school  for  labor  go  side  by  side  with  the  school  for 
study  may  be  divided  into  two  groups. 

In  one  group  belong  all  those  who,  like  Ziller,  regard 
hand  labor  as  a  necessary  preparation  for  life,  but  deny 
its  value  for  the  harmonious  trainino;  for  mankind. 
We  hope  we  have  shown  clearly  how  erroneous  this 
impression  is.  Here  we  merely  suggest  that  it  is  in 
the  highest  degree  strange  that  necessary  preparation 
for  life  should  be  placed  in  opposition  to  the  general 
training  of  mankind.  We  are  of  the  opinion  that  it  is  no 
opposition,  but  an  inseparable  element  of  human  train- 
ing. For,  without  preparatory  training  for  life,  what 
is  the  value  of  general  human  training?  Ziller  ban- 
ishes industrial  instruction  to  side  classes  as  an  unpeda- 
gogic  manner  of  instruction.  From  what  we  have 
already  said,  we  can  judge  with  what  right  he  does 
this.  Ziller  always  wishes  the  connection  between  the 
schools  of  labor  and  study,  or,  as  he  says,  between 
schools  of  teaching  and  education,  to  be  preserved. 
The  two  must  constantly  work  together,  and  go  hand 
in  hand  with  each  other.  The  boundaries  which  Ziller 
draws  between  the  two  are  purely  doctrinal,  and  by 
practice  will  soon  be  effaced.  As  soon  as  the  fact  is 
recognized  that  in  training  and  educative  value,  indus- 
trial instruction  is  equal  to  the  best,  and  indeed  superior 
to  most  branches  of  instruction,  they  must  disappear. 


134  INDUSTRIAL   INSTRUCTION. 

To  the  second  group  belong  those  by  whom  the 
method  of  this  union  of  the  schools  for  study  and  labor 
is  not  yet  discovered,  or  appears  not  yet  sufficiently 
perfected.  This  objection  has  its  authority,  yet  it  is 
not  of  a  theoretical,  but  of  a  practical  nature. 

If  only  a  sense  of  the  necessity  for  such  a  union  has 
become  general,  and  we  seek  the  method,  the  lack  of 
method  will  be  easily  remedied.  So  far,  however, 
very  few  have  searched,  and  we  cannot  wonder  that  it 
is  not  yet  or  not  entirely  discovered.  With  regard  to 
the  method  of  union  of  instruction  in  labor  and  study, 
as  well  as  to  the  method  of  industrial  instruction  in 
particular,  Pestalozzi,  in  what  he  says  of  his  still  un- 
discovered ABC  of  the  art,  touches  the  point.  It  is, 
however,  quite  natural  that  a  thing  which  no  one 
seeks  is  seldom  discovered ;  but  if  we  would  seek  it 
with  perhaps  a  little  of  the  earnestness  with  which  we 
are  accustomed  to  seek  even  small  advantages  in  finan- 
cial schemes,  then  it  would  he  very  easy  to  find,  and 
once  found,  it  would  certainly  he  a  great  gift  to  human- 
ity. If  mankind  were  compelled  to  seek  it,  then  it 
would  be  most  quickly  discovered,  for  necessity  is  the 
mother  of  invention. 

How  do  we  think  the  combination  of  labor  and  in- 
struction can  be  secured?  Perhaps  according  to  the 
following  principles  and  opinions.  Explanations  in 
detail  cannot  have  a  place  here. 

Labor  is  the  centre  of  youthful  education  and  train- 
ing.    Since  we  are  convinced,  however,  that  there  is 


INDUSTRIAL   INSTRUCTIOJ^     --*  135 

no  centre,  where  sl^- instruction,  according  to  the  edu- 
cational stand-point,  can  unite,  then  we  cannot  re- 
gard labor  as  a  centre  to  which  we  desire  to  unite  all 
instruction.  Not  all  of  that  which  the  child  is  taught 
can  be  united  to  the  child's  labor,  because  not  every- 
thing can  be  made  by  the  child,  and  very  much  can 
not  be  at  all  represented  by  labor.  The  observation 
and  the  word  must  also  instruct. 

The  genuine  Froebelian  kindergarten  is  to  be  organ- 
ically united  to  the  school.  Until  the  tenth  year,  labor 
stands  in  the  foreground ;  from  the  tenth  to  the  thir- 
teenth year,  labor  and  instruction  can  be  equal  in 
importance ;  and  from  the  thirteenth  to  the  fifteenth, 
instruction  will  be  in  the  foreground.  While,  until  the 
thirteenth  year,  labor  essentially  precedes  instruction, 
from  that  time  forward  can  instruction  lead  to  labor ; 
while,  until  the  thirteenth  year,  the  work  is  princi- 
pally done  from  models,  the  pupil  may  now  work 
from  drawings,  until  he  is  able  to  make  his  own 
designs. 

The  first  instruction  in  arithmetic  is  connected  with 
stick-laying ;  to  this  end,  the  sticks  must  indicate  units 
of  measure.  Step  by  step  with  the  work  goes  further 
instruction  in  arithmetic.  Form  relations  of  labor 
products  as  of  material  for  labor  are  conveyed  -  and 
expressed  in  measure,  'weight,  and  value,  \yith  the 
paper  and  pasteboard  work,  instruction  in  space  and 
drawing  is  connected.  Modelling  precedes  drawing. 
Before   geometrical  instruction   is   given,   geometrical 


136  TNJ)USTRIAL    INSTRUCTION^. 

constructions  with  small  sticks  are  made  ;  or  they  may 
be  cut  from  paper,  embroidered,  grouped  in  colors,  and 
pasted.  Instruction  in  elementary  stereometry  is  pre- 
ceded by  the  construction  of  paper  boxes  in  diflferent 
forms  and  for  different  purposes,  as  well  as  the  con- 
struction of  stereometrical  bodies  which  serve  no  prac- 
tical purpose.  Instruction  in  nature  knowledge,  i.  e., 
natural  science,  is  connected  with  labor  in  the  school- 
garden,  working  with  soil,  animal  and  vegetable  mat- 
ter ;  instruction  in  physics  with  the  construction  of 
levellers,  elevators,  rollers,  suction  pipes,  etc.  In  the 
higher  grades  the  branches  of  instruction  lead  again 
to  labor.  Leaf,  flower  and  fruit  pieces,  parts  of  the 
human  body  and  of  the  lower  animals,  may  be  mod- 
elled and  carved.  The  things  made  may  perhaps  also 
be  drawn.  Magic-lanterns,  camera-obscura,  weighing 
machines,  and  other  objects  useful  in  instruction  may 
be  constructed.  The  higher  classes  may  provide  the 
lower  with  material  as  well  as  models  for  observation 
and  instruction.  The  description  of  working  material, 
tools,  manner  of  labor,  offers  a  finer  choice  and  a  bet- 
ter quality  of  themes  for  discussion  and  essays  than 
description  of  battles  never  witnessed,  and  the  discus- 
sion of  scientific  and  literary  questions. 

Yet  since  this  subject  is  not  the  aim  of  our  work, 
we  must  not  digress.  These  suggestions  must  suffice 
to  show  how  easily,  naturally,  and  unconstrainedly 
the  union  of  the  school  for  study  and  labor  may  be 
effected. 


INDUSTRIAL   INSTRUCTION.  137 

XIII.       ]VIETHOD    OF   INDUSTRIAL   INSTRUCTION. 

The  opponents  of  industrial  instruction  assert  that 
in  the  Klauson  Cass  efforts  there  can  be  no  question 
of  practical  form  and  peculiar  method.  Now,  although 
this  reproach  does  not  touch  industrial  instruction,  we 
shall  accept  it  as  referring  to  every  phase  of  indus- 
trial instruction.  There,  however,  it  does  not  apply, 
for  in  this  same  instruction,  practical  forms  and  pe- 
culiar methods  can  be  discussed.  Of  course,  he  who 
does  not  wish  to  see  and  hear  will  not  see  the  sun  nor 
hear  the  thunder.*  Certainly,  neither  the  practical  form 
nor  method  is  finished,  but  the  foundation  work  to  this 
end  has  been  done. 

In  order  to  be  able  to  assert  that  industrial  instruc- 
tion is  not  yet  practically  systematized  and  method- 
ized, w^e  must  ignore  the  earnest  Avork  of  many 
thorough  educators  and  the  literature  of  a  century. 
The  reproach  regarding  the  impracticable  form  of 
industrial  instruction,  whatever  notion  may  underlie 
the  words  "impracticable  form,"  is  entirely  unfounded. 
If  the  idea  be  so  understood  that  it  can  be  said 
that  industrial  instruction  is  not  yet  so  organized  as 
to  offer  practical  benefit  for  life,  then  it  is  entirely 
opposed  to  every  kind  of  industrial  instruction,  and 
besides,  an  assertion  is  made  which  the  experience  of 
centuries  will  refute.  Furthermore,  if  it  be  understood 
to  mean  that  industrial  instruction  is  not  yet  fitted  to 
be   united  with  and   to   be   of    service   to   theoretical 


138  INDUSTKIAL   INSTRUCTION. 

instruction,  such  an  opinion  will  be  also  refuted  by 
experience,  for  in  many  celebrated  educational  in- 
stitutions this  union  and  advantage  to  theoretical 
instruction  has  already  been  tested.  .  If  these  two 
objections  against  industrial  instruction  were  not  dis- 
proved by  experience,  they  could  by  logical  proofs  be 
very  easily  shaken. 

Finally,  if  by  the  impracticable  form  of  industrial 
instruction  we  may  understand  a  form  which  is  not 
yet  sufficiently  perfected  to  be  introduced  into  the 
organism  of  the  public  school,  this  objection  may  be 
met  by  stating  the  fact  that  industrial  instruction  has 
been  introduced  into  the  public  schools  of  France, 
and  has  long  held  an  important  place  in  the  acade- 
mies. Shall  not  that  which  is  possible  in  France  be 
also  possible  in  German  countries  which  are  richer  in 
educational  experiences  and  opinions  ?  And  shall  that 
which  is  good  and  possible  for  private  institutions  be 
bad  and  impossible  for  [)ublic  education?  Perhaps 
labor  is  recommended  as  a  means  of  training  and  edu- 
cation for  neglected  and  feeble-minded  children,  and 
rightly,  too,  for  the  educators  in  houses  of  correction 
and  institutions  for  the  feeble-minded  cannot  speak 
too  highly  of  the  training  and  educational  influence  of 
labor.  Is  the  conclusion  unfounded  that  that  which  as 
training  and  education  works  so  effectively  on  the 
feeble-minded  and  neglected  will  work  still  better  upon 
the  healthy-minded  and  the  cared  for?  And  can  the 
public   school   so   easily   exclude   such    an    important 


INDUSTRIAL   INSTRUCTION.  139 

means  of  discipline  and  education?  Even  the  most 
outspoken  opponents  recommend  industrial  instruction 
for  the  poor.  They  appear  to  appreciate  strangely  the 
historical  fact  that,  until  now,  industrial  instruction 
was  not  employed  for  the  poor,  but  essentially  for 
the  training  and  education  of  the  rich  and  most  dis- 
tinguished people.  So  it  was  regarded  by  Locke, 
Francke,  Basedow,  Salzmann  ;  so  it  is  to-day  regarded 
by  Keferstein,  Barth,  and  others.  Yet  we  must  accept 
the  essentially  educational  point  of  view.  For  social 
as  well  as  educational  reasons,  we  would  be  obliged  to 
take  the  field  with  all  our  might  against  an  industrial 
instruction  which  bears  in  itself  the  mark  of  contempt 
and  civil  inequality.  It  would  be  a  degradation  of 
labor  which  could  not  have  been  worse  in  the  old  slave 
states,  and  it  must  be  calculated  to  sharpen  rather  than 
equalize  social  contrasts. 

In  German  countries  industrial  instruction  is  of  a 
sufficiently  practical  form  to  warrant  its  introduction 
into  the  organism  of  the  public  school. 

Germany  has  had  the  good  fortune  to  bring  to  the 
front  a  man  who  has  not  only  recognized  the  far-reach- 
ino^  siofnification  of  labor  in  youthful  trainins^  and 
education,  but  who  has  practically  arranged  and  sys- 
tematized labor  for  early  childhood.  We  mean  Froe- 
bel,  the  founder  of  the  Kindergarten.  He  has  done 
the  most  important  and  the  hardest  work  of  practically 
systematizing  and  methodizing  industrial  iustruction. 
We  only  need  to  build  carefully  upon  it.     Industrial 


140  INDUSTRIAL    mSTRUCTION. 

instruction  in  the  school  signifies  only  an  extension  of 
Froebel's  idea.  Already,  long  before  the  appearance 
of  the  industrial-instruction  movement,  this  extension 
was  taken  in  charge,  and  had  borne  its  fruit.  A  rich 
literature,  richer  than  upon  many  other  subjects,  al- 
ready exists.  Shall  nothing  useful  be  found  in  it? 
Surely  there  is  much  to  be  found,  and  we  assert  Ihat 
in  order  to  bring  together  the  most  rational  plan  of 
industrial  instruction,  only  a  sifting  choice  is  needed, 
A  subject  of  instruction  which,  like  labor,  unites  a 
practical  S3^stem  and  method  for  the  earliest  childhood 
can  oifer  no  difficulties  against  a  wide  development  for 
the  school-going  age  ;  and  it  offers  none,  for  in  all 
cases  observation  can  seize  the  idea  to  be  embodied, 
and  an  uninterrupted  progress  from  the  physically  and 
mentally  simple  to  the  complex,  from  the  near  to  the 
remote,  from  the  known  to  the  unknown,  is  always 
possible. 

The  mutual  instruction  of  the  pupils  by  each  other 
can  be  applied  not  only  without  injury,  but  with  ad- 
vantage, as  is  the  case  to-day  in  the  schools  of  tech- 
nolog3^  The  instruction  may  be  class  instruction ;  in 
the  higher  grades,  grouped  and  individual  instruction 
is  admissible.  Kinds  of  work  are  chosen  from  an 
educational  stand-point,  with. regard  to  theoretical  in- 
struction and  especially  to  the  prominent  needs  of  the 
country. 

Granted  that  industrial  instruction  is  not  yet  in  all 
its    details   practically  systematized   and  methodized ; 


INDUSTRIAL   INSTRUCTION.  141 

have  we  on  that  account  a  right  to  look  down  upon 
this  defect,  which  after  all  is  only  relative?  Among 
our  present  school  subjects,  are  there  not  perhaps 
some  with  primitive  s}- stems  and  incomplete  methods? 
Has  instruction  in  morals  and  manners  until  now  been 
practically  systematized  and  methodized  up  to  the 
teaching  of  citizens'  rights  and  duties  ?  And  have  we 
not  for  several  decades  been  disputing  about  rpethods 
of  instruction  in  history,  without  coming  to  any  agree- 
ment? Or  during  the  last  fifty  years  has  not  a  num- 
ber of  subjects  been  introduced  into  the  schools,  whose 
practical  system  and  particular  methods  at  the  time  of 
their  introduction  could  hardly  be  spoken  of?  Before 
a  subject  has  been  widely  introduced,  is  it  at  all  pos- 
sible to  perfect  a  method  of  instruction  for  it  ? 

The  reproach  of  lack  of  practical  system  is  always 
raised  against  every  innovation  ;  but  it  has  never  jet 
hindered  its  beinoj  introduced  and  carried  throuo:h. 
It  is  entirely  insufficient  for  the  refusal  of  a  justifia- 
ble innovation.  Those  w^ho  oppose  the  introduction  of 
such  with  such  an  objection,  do  not  know  what  logical 
heroes  they  are.  They  might  as  well  forbid  that  any 
one  should  go  into  water  for  the  first  time,  and  argue 
that  swimming  is  not  yet  practically  systematized. 
As  if  it  could  be  practically  systematized  without  going 
into  the  water  !  This  reason  has  never  been  sufficient 
to  keep  us  from  innovation,  and  rightly,  for  if  it  had, 
we  should  have  remained  in  the  deepest  barbarism. 
Civil   society  would   not   yet   have   been    introduced, 


142  INDUSTRIAL   INSTRUCTION. 

because  under  feudal  influences  it  could  not  have  been 
practically  systematized.  The  principles  of  object 
and  objective  instruction  would  not  yet  have  been 
introduced,^  for  under  the  dominion  of  the  catechetical 
word  instruction  and  learning  by  heart,  it  could  not 
have  been  practically  systematized  and  especially 
methodized,  etc. 

In  so  far  as  in  small  institutions  industrial  instruc- 
tion can  he  practically  systematized  and  methodized,  it 
has  been  done,  and  reproach  as  to  failure  in  practical 
system  and  method  cannot  he  hrought  against  its  gen- 
eral introduction.  Practical  evidence  has  sufficiently 
shown  that  industrial  instruction  has  a  high  disci- 
plinary and  educative  value,  and  can  only  with  the 
greatest  advantage  to  theoretical  instruction  hecome 
united  with  it. 


'  By  object  instruction,  reference  is  made  to  the  object  lesson ; 
objective  instruction  implies  all  instruction  which  requires  the 
exercise  of  the  observing  powers. 


INDUSTRIAL   ESTSTRUCTION.  143 


CHAPTER  YI. 

WHAT  DO  THE  CLASSIC  EDUCATORS  SAY  OF  INDUSTRIAL 
INSTRUCTION? 

In  the  first  paragraph  of  the  last  chapter  we  pointed 
out  the  characteristic  fiict  that  the  opponents  of  indus- 
trial instruction  avoid  the  principal  question,  viz.,  that 
of  the  educational  necessity  for  hand  labor,  or  its  inju- 
rious influence.  In  the  same  way,  or  rather  with  much 
narrower  considerations,  they  pass  over  the  opinions  of 
the  classic  educators  in  favor  of  hand  labor.  And  yet 
we  should  think  that  those  who  say  the  opposite  of 
what  the  great  educators  have  expressed,  and  those 
who  recommend  not  to  do  what  they  (i.  e.,  the  great 
educators)  have  done,  might  feel  it  a  duty  to  show 
how  sadly  the  celebrated  thinkers  and  experts  were  in 
error  in  regard  to  the  disciplinary  and  educative  value 
of  hand  labor. 

So  long  as  this  error  is  not  exposed,  we  cannot  be 
required  to  exchange  the  authority  of  the  classical  edu- 
cators for  that  of  the  opponents  of  industrial  instruc- 
tion, and  especially  we  cannot  reckon  all  the  prominent 
schoolmen  among  these  opponents. 

In  the  course  of  our  argument,  we  had  an  opportu- 


144  INDUSTRIAL   INSTRUCTION. 

nitj  to  present  a  few  verdicts  of  famous  educators  in 
favor  of  hand  labor,  and  we  may  be  allowed  to  quote  a 
few  more. 

Comenius  argued  for  it  somewhat  after  the  follow- 
ing manner :  "  The  human  body  needs  movement  and 
occupation." 

Hand  labor  can  furnish  these,  and  for  this  reason, 
in  order  to  prepare  for  life  properly,  it  is  necessary. 
Little  children  must  become  accustomed  to  labor  and 
constant  employment,  whether  this  be  of  earnest  work 
or  play,  that  they  may  learn  not  to  endure  weariness. 
Older  chiklren  ought  to  know  the  more  important 
things  about  trades,  if  only  that  they  may  avoid  being 
too  grossly  ignorant  of  what  is  going  on  in  human  life, 
or  it  may  be  that  the  natural  inclination  by  w^hich  they 
are  most  strongly  drawn,  may  the  more  easily  show 
itself  (choice  of  calling).  "To  the  thing  worth  know- 
ing, the  practicable  ought  to  be  united ;  the  activity 
of  deeds  can  be  joined  to  the  knowledge  of  things." 
All  that  is  to  be  learned  must  be  learned  actively. 
Together  with  the  senses,  the  mind,  heart,  and  under- 
standing, the  hand  shall  constantly  be  refined.  Locke 
demands  that  his  noble  pupil  shall  learn  one  real  hand- 
icraft:  yes,  perhaps  two  or  three,  but  one  particularly. 
He  emphasizes  the  educative  and  moralizing  value  of 
hand  labor.  Children  shall  be  instructed  to  make  their 
own  playthings,  for  this  will  accustom  them  to  look  to 
themselves  and  to  their  own  efforts  for  help  in  their 
They  may  thereby  learn  moderation  in 


INDUSTRIAL   INSTRUCTION.  145 

their  wishes,  attention,  industry,  reflection,  ingenuity, 
and  economy,  —  qualities  which  will  be  useful  to  them 
as  adults,  hence  cannot  be  too  early  learned  nor  too 
deeply  grounded.  Rousseau  says  :  "  I  insist  that  Emile 
learn  one  handicraft.  If  I  employ  a  child  in  the  work- 
shop instead  of  chaining  h\\p.  to  a  book,  then  his  hands 
work  to  the  benefit  of  his  mind.'^  He  becomes  a  sage, 
and  thinks  himself  to  be  only  a  laborer.  Emile  must 
himself  construct  the  apparatus  for  instruction  in  phys- 
ics, "for,"  says  Rousseau,  "it  can  not  be  disputed 
that  from  things  which  we  have  in  this  way  learnt 
{i.  e.,  by  work),  we  receive  much  clearer  and  more 
exact  ideas  than  those  we  appropriate  through  the  in- 
structions of  others ;  besides  this,  by  not  accustoming 
ourselves  in  a  cowardly  and  slavish  manner  to  submit 
our  reason  to  the  authority  of  another,  we  sharpen  the 
mind  to  find  relations,  to  connect  concepts,  to  invent 
instruments,  far  more  than  we  should  by  accepting 
everything  as  it  is  offered,  and  thereby  leaving  the 
mind  to  relax  into  inactivity."  By  accustoming  him  to 
exercise  and  hand  labor,  Rousseau  will  imperceptibly 
create  in  Emile  a  taste  for  reflection  and  study.  (jLabor 
is  then  the  means  for  awakenino^  and  trainino^  the  men- 
tal  powers.) 

Francke,  as  well  as  Basedow  and  Salzmann,  intro- 
duced hand  labor  into  their  schools.  At  Francka's,  in 
the  school  for  children  of  the  higher  classes,  some 
branches  of  instruction  were  based  upon  labor,  and 
the   instruction   led   to  labor   and   was    supplemented 

10 


146  INDUSTRIAL   INSTRUCTION. 

by  it.  As  we  have  seen,  Salzmann  expresses  himself 
upon  the  mental  training  power  of  labor  exactly  in  the 
same  way  as  Rousseau  and  Locke,  but  he  emphasizes 
its  moralizing  influence  more  than  either.  He  rebuts 
the  objections  of  pedagogues  against  industrial  instruc- 
tion with  the  cutting  remark  :  "  The  greatest  number  of 
these  objections  arise  from  the  fact  that  the  fewest 
teachers  have  learned  hand  labor ;  hence  they  will  try 
to  condemn  this  kind  of  education  and  make  it  ridic- 
ulous." Still  more  energetically  than  all  the  prede- 
cessors, Pestalozzi  expresses  himself  in  favor  of  hand 
labor.     Only  listen  ;  — 

"With  every  day  it  became  clearer  to  him"  (to  his 
schoolmaster  Gliiphi)  "that  industry,  the  physical  activ- 
ity of  our  race,  is  the  true,  sacred,  and  eternal  tneans 
for  the  union  of  the  whole  circuit  of  our  powers  into  a 
single,  common  force,  the  force  of  humanity.  Every 
day  he  saw  more  how  industry  trains  the  understand- 
ing and  gives  force  to  the  feelings  of  the  heart;  how  it 
guards  the  powers  and  purity  of  life  from  the  deadly 
wasting  of  the  senses,  closes  the  gates  of  the  imagination 
against  error,  blunts  the  loquacious  point  of  the  idle 
tongue,  preserves  the  sense  of  duty  in  our  nature  from 
its  ruin,  leads  away  from  foibles,  preserves  us  from  re- 
garding our  flippant  chatter  about  the  deed  as  the  deed 
itself  and  our  gabble  over  heroism  as  heroic  greatness, 
and  our  useless  empty  dreams  about  the  divine  forces 
of  faith  and  love  as  these  forces  themselves."  These 
higher  views  of  human  development  were  the  reasons 


INDUSTRIAL   INSTRUCTION.  147 

why  he  admitted  into  his  school  the  turning-lathe,  the 
joiners'  bench,  the  bobbin,  sewing  cushions,  etc. 

By  the  side  of  the  eight  propositions  in  favor  of 
hand  labor  here  presented,  and  by  the  side  of  those  we 
have  already  cited,  the  following  propositions  may  be 
selected  and  formulated  from  his  works,  especially 
from  his  principal  work,  "How  Gertrude  teaches  her 
Children,"  Letter  XII.  :  — 

1.  Only  by  the  development  of  the  physical  activi- 
ties can  man  attain  inner  satisfaction. 

2.  The  education  of  the  activities  does  not  coincide 
with  the  education  in  knowledge ;  the  former  is  not 
limited  to  the  latter,  but  surpasses  it,  and  for  the  peo- 
ple is  more  important. 

3.  Industrial  instruction  is  more  educative  than 
instruction  in  knowledge.  The  latter,  in  its  one- 
sidedness,  is  a  hindrance  to  the  development  of  phys- 
ical skill.  "In  order  to  be  able  to  do,  we  must  in 
every  case  do;  in  order  to  know,  we  need  in  many 
cases  only  remain  passive ;  in  many  cases  we  need  only 
see  and  hear. 

4.  Hand  labor  is  the  foundation  and  guide  to  morality. 

5.  Without  hand  labor  no  harmonious  development, 
no  human  discipline. 

As  we  are  not  writing  a  history  of  industrial  instruc- 
tion, we  must  stop  here.  The  foregoing  suffices  to  show 
that  among  the  great  educators  the  greatest  harmony 
prevails  in  regard  to  the  disciplinary  and  educative 
value  of  hand  labor,  as  well  as  to  the  necessity  for  it. 


148  INDUSTRIAL   INSTRUCTION. 


CHAPTER  VII. 

EDUCATIONAL  AND  SOCIAL  NECESSITY  FOR  INDUSTRIAL 
INSTRUCTION.  —SUPPLEMENTARY  R£SUM:6. 

We  have  now  finished  with  the  objections  of  the 
opponents  of  industrial  instruction,  and  have  shown 
that  they  are  partly  without  foundation,  and  partly  do 
not  in  any  way  apply  to  the  subject  m  hand.  In  doing 
this,  we  have  found  opportunity  to  bring  forward  nearly 
all  our  reasons  for  the  educational  and  social  necessity 
of  industrial  instruction.  It  remains,  however,  for  us 
to  supplement  some  and  to  secure  a  better  view  of  all. 

Man  is  not  only  a  speculating,  but  in  a  much  higher 
degree,  a  willing  and  acting  being.  This  last  side  of 
human  nature  is  prominently  shown  in  the  child.  The 
child  wills, ^  and  acts  much  and  thinks  but  little. 
Our  present  school,  however,  fosters  chiefly  the  specu- 
lative side  of  the  child's  nature,  and  neglects  the 
willing  and  acting.  It  is  guilty  of  a  great  one-sided- 
ness,  and  violates  the  laws  of  development  in  the 
child.     The  child  has  a  natural  inclination  for  move- 


'  The  word  wills,  here,  is  in  the  sense  of  wishes  or  desires ;  does 
not  refer  to  will,  so  called. 


INDUSTRIAL   INSTEUCTION.  149 

ment :  the  school  compels  it  to  sit  still  in  the  same  spot 
for  hours.  The  child  has  a  natural  inclination  to  em- 
ploy itself :  the  school  forces  its  attention  towards  theo- 
retical instruction,  for  which  it  has  no  interest,  because 
the  benefits  lie  far  from  its  needs  and  its  circle  of  vision. 
Because  the  child  has  no  interest  in  instruction,  we  can 
only  by  artificial  means  gain  its  attention  and  concentra- 
tion. The  one-sided,  artificial  mental  irritation  and 
tension,  without  lively  interest  on  the  child's  part,  causes 
mental  over-irritation  and  weakening.  Much  sitting 
in  the  same  place,  without  simultaneous  movement 
of  the  other  parts  of  the  body,  is,  for  the  physical 
development,  in  the  highest  degree  injurious.  The  im- 
provement of  the  body  by  practical  activity  is  entirely 
neglected,  and,  owing  to  lack  of  timely  awakening  and 
employment,  a  multitude  of  valuable,  practical,  artistic 
talents  and  capabilities  come  to  nothing.  The  whole 
instruction  has  too  little  reference  to  practical  life,  and 
hence,  instead  of  preparing  one  for  it,  alienates  one 
from  it. 

These  objections  can  justly  be  made  against  the 
school,  although  it  must  be  said  that  it  is  not  alone 
guilty  of  the  injuries  mentioned.  The  school,  too,  is  a 
development,  neither  planned  beforehand  nor  preceded 
by  insight.  According  to  the  better  views  gained,  it 
is  our  duty  to  improve^  that  which  it  is  at  present. 
Before  these  glaring  evils  it  is  unmanly  to  hide  the 
head  like  the  ostrich,  and  to  declare  that  they  do 
not  exist,  and  that  merely  because  one  is  a  part  of  the 


150  INDUSTRIAL   INSTRUCTION. 

school,  because  one  is  a  teacher.  We  teachers  did  not 
make  the  school,  and  hence  are  not  alone  responsible 
for  its  evils,  which  naturally  are  only  obvious  to  an  ad- 
vanced insight.  Quite  as  much  responsibility  for  these 
evils  rests  upon  the  authorities,  the  statesmen,  and  the 
people.  Hence,  the  improvement  of  the  school  system 
is  a  question  which  concerns  not  only  the  teacher,  but 
the  whole  nation.  If  upon  this  point  the  teachers 
once  get  a  right  position,  they  will  grasp  all  questions 
of  school  improvement  with  the  right  objectivity  and 
in  the  right  light. 

AYithout  doubt,  the  evils  mentioned  of  our  present 
school  could  be  removed  by  industrial  instruction, 
pursued  according  to  educational  principles  and  with 
pedagogical  aims. 

Industrial  instruction  is  throughout  not  only  a 
powerful  means  for  the  promotion  of  objective  in- 
struction ;  it  is  not  only  the  best  kind  of  objective 
instruction  ;  it  is  not  only  an  extension  of  objective 
instruction,  as  has  already  been  said  by  its  advocates; 
but  it  is  more  than  all  that,  for  it  has  :  — 

First.     A  great  educational  value. 

Second,  A  significant  mental  and  physical  disci- 
plining power. 

Third.  A  deep-reaching  social  and  moralizing  in- 
fluence. 

The  jjreat  educational  value  of  industrial  instruction 
consists  in  :  — 

1.     That   it   satisfies   and   cultivates  the  child's  in- 


INDUSTRIAL   mSTRUCTION.  151 

stinct  for  activity ;  that  it  nourishes  this  instinct  and 
directs  it  towards  the  beautiful  and  the  useful,  and  that 
by  it  the  most  important  part  of  the  child's  nature  will 
receive  justice. 

The  unfolding  of  the  good  side  of  human  nature,  and 
for  the  nature  of  man  to  receive  its  due,  means,  how- 
ever, to  remove  the  ground  support  from  the  so-called 
bad  sides  of  human  nature,  and  arrest  their  growth. 
As  the  devil  is  a  fallen  angel,  so  are  most,  if  not  all, 
the  so-called  bad  sides  of  a  man  merely  suppressed, 
arrested,  crippled,  and  misguided  good  sides  of  his 
nature.  Human  nature  is  neither  good  nor  bad ;  it 
only  becomes  bad,  i.  e.,  it  turns  against  the  interesf 
of  the  species,  and  if  it  is  slighted,  avenges  itself, 
just  as  a  law  of  nature  when  it  is  slighted  avenges 
itself.  The  undervaluing  of  the  instinct  for  activity, 
and  the  impossibility  under  existing  social  relations  of 
giving  it  its  due,  —  these  are  the  sources  of  a  great 
multitude  of  human  faults  and  infirmities.  Let  us 
seek  to  stop  them  (i.  e.,  the  sources),  instead  of 
merely  trying  to  remove  their  effects. 

2.  That  it  awakens  a  lively  interest  and  pleas- 
ure in  labor  and  its  products,  and  enables  the  child 
by  its  own  efibrts  to  secure  this  interest  and  pleasure. 
The  articles  produced  by  the  labor  of  the  child,  ar- 
ticles of  real  use,  create  in  him  a  feeling  of  capa- 
bility, awaken  his  self-confidence,  and  give  him  inner 
satisfaction. 

Our  whole  material  as  well  as  mental  culture  rests 


152  INDUSTRIAL   INSTRUCTION. 

upon  labor;  hence,  the  principal  task  of  education 
must  be  to  awaken  and  educate  the  rising  generation  to 
an  interest  and  joy  in  it,  for  this  at  the  same  time  im- 
plies the  advancement  of  culture. 

Pleasure  in  la1)or  provides  against  idle,  foolish,  im- 
moral dissipation.  The  feeling  of  capability  and  of 
his  own  usefulness  raises  the  feeling  of  dignity  and 
self-confidence  in  the  child,  and  preserves  it  from  error. 
The  living  interest  in  things  worthy  of  eftbrt  and  to  be 
reached  by  his  own  strength,  closes  the  door  on  all  un- 
bridled wishes  and  weakening  dreams,  with  all  their 
enticements,  and  the  satisfaction  attained  by  labor  re- 
turns constantly  to  that  from  which  it  flows,  —  to  labor. 

3.  That  it,  without  artificial  means,  forces  the  child 
to  concentration,  attention,  and  perseverance.  Who- 
ever will  accomplish  an^^thing  by  labor  must  concen- 
trate himself,  must  be  attentive  and  persevering,  other- 
wise it  will  not  succeed,  and  the  mistakes  are  more 
easily  manifested  than  in  school  work.  Besides,  he 
who  is  interested  in  a  thing  observes  gladly,  concen- 
trates himself  willingly,  and  perseveres  without  mur- 
mur. 

4.  That  it  nourishes  thought  and  w^ll,  and  directs 
it  towards  the  good  and  the  useful,  and  permits  and 
teaches  to  transform  both  into  the  deed,  which  again 
warrants  a  high  satisfaction  and  awakens  dignity. 

Thought  needs  a  subject ;  the  will  needs  an  aim. 
If  no  attractive,  permissible  object  be  ofiered  the 
thoughts,  then  they  seize  upon  improper  ones,  and  if 


IKDUSTEIAL   INSTRUCTION.  153 

no  rational  aim  be  set  for  the  will,  it  chooses  for  itself 
an  irrational  and  bad  one.  History  and  experience 
satisfactorily  prove  the  correctness  of  what  has  been 
said.  A  worthy  object  of  childish  thought,  however, 
is  labor. 

The  significant  educative  power  of  industrial  instruc- 
tion lies  in  :  — 

1.  That  it  awakens  and  trains  the  powers  and  tal- 
ents which  would  otherwise  remain  dormant  and  un- 
trained. 

It  is  a  fact  that  many  talents,  if  at  an  early  age  they 
are  not  properly  fostered,  become  arrested.  Once  ar- 
rested, it  is  very  difficult  for  them  to  be  called  forth 
again,  and  still  more  so  for  them  to  be  developed. 
The  present  school  for  study  hardly  awakens  and 
trains  the  artistic  talents  at  all.  Thousands  of  tal- 
ented persons  and  hundreds  of  artistic  geniuses  miss 
their  destiny  and  are  lost  to  humanity,  and  foil  in 
their  callings  as  well  as  in  their  lives.  The  history 
of  many  a  disappointed  life  and  even  of  many  a  crimi- 
nal's life  is  nothing  more  than  the  tragical  history  of 
arrested  artistic  talent  or  genius.  Oh  !  they  are  often 
heart-breaking,  those  histories  ! 

Shall  the  rich  artistic  powers  always  be  lost  for  the 
beautifying  of  life?  Shall  thousands  forever  stagnate 
mentally  because  the  point  of  Archimedes  from  which 
their  mental  life  would  have  originated  (we  mean 
artistic  interests  )  was  not  sufficiently  fertilized  ? 

2.  That  it  sets  in  activity  the  greatest  imaginable 


154  INDUSTRIAL   INSTRUCTION. 

number  of  senses  and  powers,  and  secures  knowl- 
edsfe  and  information  which  no  other  instruction  can 
secure. 

There  are  knowledge  and  understanding  which  can 
only  be  gained  by  labor,  and  it  is  an  educational  ex- 
perience much  too  lightly  valued  that  the  minds  of 
many  children  only  rise  by  practical  activity,  and  that 
the  mind  so  aroused  is  of  the  stronger  and  more 
progressive  kind.  Only  the  original  mind,  however, 
is  progressive ;  only  the  original  mind  can  educate 
itself  by  self-activity. 

3.  That  it  first  gives  a  foundation  for  much  theo- 
retical instruction,  and  places  the  aim  intelligently 
before  the  children. 

4.  That  it  must  serve  as  a  test  for  much  theoretical 
instruction  and  as  sufficient  reason  for  its  necessity  and 
practical  utility,  —  at  least  for  the  understanding  of  the 
children.  What  appears  to  us  established,  necessary, 
and  practical  does  not  necessarily  seem  so  to  the  child. 
If  he  is  not  educated  to  be  a  faithful  echo,  then  the 
proofs  for  everything  must  be  laid  open  before  him. 
His  mind  as  yet  is  too  weak  for  theoretical  proof,  or 
he  does  not  believe  in  it,  or  the  theoretical  proof  is 
difficult  to  produce ;  then  it  must  be  practically  per- 
formed. 

5.  That  it  secures  knowledge  and  understanding 
much  more  easily,  quickly,  impressively,  and  hence 
more  lastingly.  That  which  is  apprehended  through 
many  senses   and   powers   gains  admittance   into   the 


INDUSTEIAL   INSTRUCTION.  155 

mind  more  quickly  and  easily,  makes  a  greater  and 
more  lasting  impression.  That  which  has  gone  through 
the  hand,  foot,  and  head,  so  to  speak,  is  only  really 
our  property. 

6.  That  it  teaches  the  child  to  value,  observe,  in- 
vestigate, test,  compare,  and  invent. 

He  who  will  construct  an  object,  whether  after  a 
model  or  a  drawing,  must  take  careful  account  of  the 
important  relations  of  the  three  dimensions ;  the  work- 
ing material  must  be  chosen  and  tested  in  regard  to 
size,  color,  and  quality ;  then  the  tools  must  be  chosen 
and  examined  as  to  usefulness ;  and  finally,  in  working, 
he  must  keep  in  mind  the  measure,  and  compare  the 
form  of  the  whole  as  well  as  of  the  individual  parts. 

During  the  work,  involuntary  observations  of  the 
materials  and  tools  will  be  made,  and  investigation  and 
comparison  will  be  employed  ;  continually  estimations, 
measurements,  and  verifications  are  necessary.  During 
the  work  a  crowd  of  contingencies  and  difficulties 
which  compel  observation,  investigation,  comparison, 
and  invention,  make  their  appearance. 

7.  That  it  exercises  the  senses,  hands,  and  members, 
makes  them  skilful  in  practical  activity,  and  keeps  the 
body  sound  and  fresh. 

All  that' has  been  said  of  the  educative  value  of  in- 
dustrial instruction  applies  also  to  its  refining  influence, 
for  everything  that  educates  also  refines  ;  as  conversely, 
all  culture  educates,  althouo^h  to  a  much  less  desfree. 
All   education   is   discipline,  but   not   all  discipline   is 


156  INDUSTRIAL   INSTRUCTION. 

education ;  whether  and  to  what  degree  culture  is 
educative,  depends  materially  upon  the  process  of  at- 
taining it. 

In  favor  of  the  social  and  moralizing  influence  of 
this  branch  of  instruction,  we  could,  in  the  first  place, 
advance  what  we  have  said  of  its  educative  value,  for 
under  education  in  a  narrow  sense  we  understand  only 
a  moral  completeness  or  perfection.  Morals  and  mo- 
rality, however,  are  of  value  chiefly  in  social  life. 
They  express,  in  the  first  place,  what  we  owe  to  others 
and  to  ourselves  in  regard  to  others. 

Furthermore,  the  moralizing  social  influence  of  in- 
dustrial instruction  lies  in  :  — 

1.  That  it  comprehends  the  whole  man  from  the 
good  side  of  his  nature,  and  brings  only  his  good 
powers  into  action. 

2.  That,  in  the  most  significant  manner,  it  demands 
and  exercises  the  self-activity  of  the  worker.  Self- 
activity,  however,  is  the  way  to  morality.  Only 
action  can  train  the  character,  and  only  in  action  can 
it  become  apparent.  Also,  only  by  action  can  moral- 
ity come  to  light.  A  mere  passive  morality,  which 
only  avoids  the  bad,  but  does  nothing  good,  is  but  the 
])cginning  of  true  morality.  The  great  Florentine 
(Dante)  places  in  the  fore-court  of  hell  those  who  have 
avoided  the  bad,  but  have  not  earnestly  striven  after 
the  good. 

3.  That  it  places  a  barrier  against  idleness  as 
against  the  beginning  of  all  crimes. 


INDUSTRIAL   INSTRUCTION.  157 

Children  who  have  learned  to  employ  themselves 
accordins^  to  their  inclinations  will  not  lounsce  round 
and  fall  into  all  kinds  of  bad  habits ;  under  the  hardest 
exterior  circumstances,  they  will  find  a  means  to  satisfy 
their  pleasur3  in  a  favorite  employment,  in  building, 
fashioning,  and  construction.  The  parents  will  gladly 
satisfy  the  children's  wi^hes  "Ri  this  direction ;  the 
money  which  at  present  is  paid  out  for  useless  play- 
things will  suffice  to  furnish  simple  tools  and  working 
material. 

4.  That  it  teaches  the  child  to  know,  love,  and 
respect  labor,  to  appreciate  correctly  the  value  of 
labor  products,  and  so  to  comprehend  the  social  value 
of  hand-laboring  people. 

He  who  has  never  performed  hand  labor  does  not 
know  how  to  value  it,  its  products  and  the  working 
class  of  people.  The  exchange  or  money  value  of  a 
thing  furnishes  a  poor  standard  by  which  to  judge  of 
the  trouble  of  its  manufacture,  for  it  depends  upon 
existing  economic  laws,  and  not  upon  the  industry, 
ca[)ability,  and  trouble  expended.  The  rich  man 
seldom  knows  that  to  construct  an  article  which  he 
buys  for  one  or  two  marks  or  francs,  one  must  have 
given  a  long  day's  trouble,  and  have  sweat  or  frozen 
and  starved  over  it.  Indeed,  if  everything  could  give 
the  history  of  its  construction,  we  should  often  shud- 
der over  human  misery,  and  we  should  think  and  act 
more  humanely.  It  is  a  great  misfortune  for  a  state 
that  the  classes  called   to   its  guidance   have   seldom 


158  INDUSTRIAL   INSTRUCTION. 

learned  hand  labor.  If  this  were  the  case,  we  should 
have  attained  a  true  social  reform  and  greater  morality 
among  the  whole  people.  Our  moral  conduct  depends 
materially  upon  our  valuation  of  men  and  things. 

5.  That  it  leads  the  child  to  a  recognition  of  its 
powers  as  well  as  to  a  recognition  of  their  limits,  and 
teaches  him  to  value  tfie  powers  of  others  as  well  as 
the  people  themselves. 

Knowledge  puffs  up ;  labor,  on  the  contrary,  ele- 
vates, and  at  the  same  time  preserves  us  from  conceit, 
for  only  by  doing  do  we  become  conscious  of  the  limits 
of  our  knowledge  and  capability. 

6.  That  it  makes  a  proper  choice  of  calling  possi- 
ble, for  only  by  self-activity  and  not  by  reception  and 
reproduction  is  the  individuality  of  the  pupil  devel- 
oped, and  only  self-activity  teaches  the  pupil  to  know 
his  powers  and  inclinations. 

7.  That  it  promotes  the  interest  of  the  parents  in 
the  school,  and  compensates  for  the  contrast  between 
school  and  life. 

Because  for  the  majority  of  the  people  the  school  is 
so  little  an  institution  for  preparation  for  life,  are  so 
many  of  the  parents  without  interest  in  the  school,  and, 
indeed,  unfriendly  towards  it.  When  the  property  less 
man  goes  out  into  life,  his  school  knowledge  as  a  rule 
is  of  very  little  use  to  him,  and  so  he  gains  the  idea 
that  the  school  is  of  no  use  at  all,  or  that  it  is  really 
injurious.  But  if  the  school,  by  means  of  industrial 
instruction,  prepare  better  for  life,  then  the  interest  of 


INDUSTRIAL   INSTRUCTION.  159 

the  great  mass  of  people  will  increase,  and  their  antip- 
athy disappear. 

CONCLUSION. 

We  hope  we  have  succeeded  in  proving  the  educa- 
tional and  social  necessity  for  industrial  instruction. 
That,  however,  which  has  become  necessary  in  the 
world,  whether  by  progressive  knowledge  or  by  changed 
relations,  does  not  admit  of  refusal,  but  like  a  power  of 
nature  breaks  its  way.  Hence,  the  subject  of  industrial 
instruction,  notwithstanding  the  antipathy  and  preju- 
dice of  capable  schoolmen,  will  make  its  way.  We 
understand  these  men  well.  By  offices  and  honors 
they  are  too  much  connected  with  the  school,  and  also 
by  trouble  and  struggle  they  have  even  grown  too  old 
with  the  school  to  be  able  to  enter  upon  new  ways  with 
satisfactory  mental  freshness.  They  yield  to  a  law  of 
nature,  and  remain  behind.  Their  past  will  be  for  them 
the  drag-chains  of  progress.  We  honor  the  labor  of 
these  men  as  of  all  labor  that  has  helped  to  build  up 
the  public  school,  but  we  do  not  consider  it  as  complete 
and  finished  ;  we  wish  to  continue  it.  We  wish,  above 
all  things,  to  repair  all  neglect,  to  advance  all  that  has 
been  retarded,  and  to  prepare  a  place  for  labor  in  the 
school.  In  doing  this,  we  act  according  to  the  views, 
and  in  the  spirit  of  our  great  educators,  and  fulfil  the 
high  aim  of  the  public  school,  —  to  train  the  children 
to   he  mentally  active^  socially  useful,   and  morally 

GOOD   MEN. 


160  INDUSTRIAL  INSTRUCTION. 

Labor !  thou  that  raisest  the  humble,  consolest  the 
sad,  guidest  the  erring  into  the  path  of  virtue  ;  thou 
comfort  of  the  weak,  salvation  of  the  poor,  and  joy  of 
the  strong;  thou  help  of  the  fallen,  staff  of  the  stum- 
bling, and  comfort  of  the  good ;  thou  image  of  the 
highest  power,  that  raisest  us  to  a  likeness  to  Divinity ; 
thou  that  hast  reared  all  mankind,  and  brought  them 
out  of  barbarism;  thou  wilt  exercise  thy  mighty  dis- 
ciplinary and  educative  power  upon  the  plastic  material 
of  the  rising  generation,  and  through  thee  will  be  de- 
veloped a  more  beautiful  and  better  youth,  that  shall 
be  a  joy  and  a  blessing  to  the  world. 


Manual  Training. 


When  a  man  teaches  his  son  no  trade,  it  is  as  if  he  taught  him  highway 
robbery. ' ' 


Wood-Working  Tools:   How  to  Use  Them. 

A  handbook  for  teachers  and  pupils.  Edited  (for  the  Industrial  School 
Association)  by  Channing  Whitaker,  Professor  of  Mechanical  Engineer- 
ing at  the  Massachusetts  Institute  of  Technology.  5X  by  73^  inches. 
Cloth.  104  pages.  With  80  illustrations.  Price  by  mail,  55  cents.  Intro- 
duction price,  50  cents. 

A  COURSE  of  simple  lessons  in  the  use  of  the  universal  tools :  the 
hammer,  knife,  axe,  plane,  rule,  chalk-Hne,  square,  gauge,  chisel, 
saw,  and  augur.  The  lessons  are  so  amply  illustrated  that  any  bright 
boy  will  find  the  book  alone  a  great  help  in  his  endeavors  to  learn  the 
right  way  of  using  common  tools.  Nearly  half  of  the  illustrations  were 
taken  from  life,  and  are  efficient  substitutes  for  lengthy  and  important 
printed  instructions.  The  book  is  the  result  of  actual  experiments 
successfully  made  by  the  Industrial  School  Association  of  Boston. 
It  will  help  people,  who  are  interested  in  systematic  and  efficient 
industrial  education,  to  begin  it. 

**  The  Industrial  School  Association  conducted  small  industrial 
schools  at  its  own  expense.  It  set  itself  to  prepare  a  manual  of 
instruction,  based  upon  the  actual  experience  of  its  teachers,  with  the 
aid  of  other  teachers,  in  like  schools  in  Gloucester  and  Cambridge,  and 
this  book  is  the  result.  Of  course,  its  size  is  no  indication  of  the 
labor  and  thought  and  money  it  has  cost.  As  far  as  it  goes,  it  aims  to 
teach,  and  it  does  teach,  how  to  use  wood-working  tools  with  singular 
thoroughness  and  intelligence.  The  Rev.  George  Leonard  Chaney, 
President  of  the  Association,  writes  a  brief  introduction,  in  which  he 
says :  '  A  single  workroom,  like  the  one  used  by  this  school  in  Church 
Street,  in  any  city,  for  the  six  months  from  December  to  May,  during 


1 


152  MANUAL    TRAINING. 

which  time  it  usually  lies  idle,  with  very  little  expense  beyond  the 
original  plant  and  a  moderate  salary  to  the  teacher,  would  meet  all 
the  wants  of  three  or  four  of  the  largest  grammar  schools  for  boys. 
Three  such  supplementary  .schools,  if  used  in  turn,  would  amply  satisfy 
all  the  rightful  claims  of  industrial  education  of  this  kind  upon  the 
school  system  of  such  a  city  as  Boston.  At  so  small  an  outlay  of 
attention  and  money  might  the  native  aptitude  of  the  American  youth 
for  manual  skill  be  turned  into  useful  channels.  In  so  simple  a  way 
might  the  needed  check  be  given  to  that  exclusive  tendency  towards 
classical  rather  than  industrial  pursuits  which  the  present  school  course 
undoubtedly  promotes.'  We  heartily  welcome  this  little  book  for 
what  it  is,  and  of  course  what  it  promises,  as  we  hope,  for  industrial 
education."  —  Boston  Daily  Advertiser. 

"  Industrial  education  is  becoming  a  popular  theme,  and  for  the 
welfare  of  society  it  is  to  be  hoped  that  it  will  receive  more  and  more 
attention.  With  the  common -school  system  it  may  properly  be 
intimately  combined.  No  one  should  say  aught  against  purely 
literary  and  scientific  learning,  but  since  so  few  are  destined  to  a  sole 
use  of  these  acquisitions,  in  after-life  it  is  important  that  knowledge 
available  for  the  million  should  be  more  freely  bestowed  upon  the 
young  than  it  is.  Since  the  lapse  into  disuse  of  the  apprentice  system, 
skilled  workers  for  their  efficiency  have  pretty  much  been  left  to  their 
own  resources  in  acquiring  knowledge  of  a  chosen  occupation.  To 
remedy  this  defect  in  the  training  of  children,  industrial  schools,  and 
special  departments  in  ordinary  schools,  are  now  desired  to  meet  the 
necessary  want.  As  a  *  text-book  for  this  purpose,  Messrs.  D.  C. 
Heath  &  Co.,  Boston,  have  published  'Wood-Working  Tools:  How  to 
Use  Them.'  It  is  an  illustrated  manual  of  fourteen  chapters,  and 
aims  to  promote  the  handicraft  required  in  all  trades.  To  any  youth 
with  a  native  aptitude  for  the  use  of  tools  and  a  taste  for  mechanical 
work,  it  has  all  the  requisites  of  an  elementary  volume,  besides  being 
as  entertaining  as  it  is  plain  and  useful.  The  several  chapters  treat 
very  fully  of  striking,  splitting,  cutting,  planing,  sharpening,  adjusting, 
marking,  sawing,  reducing  surfaces,  squaring  surfaces,  boring,  joining, 
finishing,  etc.  The  work  has  been  of  great  benefit  in  the  industrial 
schools  of  Boston  and  elsewhere.  Throughout  the  country  it  may  with 
profit  be  universally  adopted  in  every  school,  public  or  private,  where 
young  persons  are  taught."  —  Dubuque  Trade  Journal. 


MANUAL    TRAINING. 


153 


The  Bureau  of  Education  at  Washington  has  shoivn 
a  great  interest  in  this  book,  and  sent  it  to  several 
schools  of  science,  tvho  acknoivledged  its  receipt  by  the 
folloiving  letters  of  commendation: —  ^ 

C.  F.  Brackett,  Pro/,  of  Physics,  Col-  \  doubtless  be  adopted  as  a  basis  for  a 

course  of  instruction  in  wood-work. 

The  Nation :  It  is  a  model  of  clear 
and  concise  directions. 

N.  Y.  Times  :  It  wastes  no  words,  but 
by  terse  text  and  apt  illustration  describes 
the  operations  of  the  wood-vvorker.  To 
a  nation  of  whittlers  and  choppers  it 
should  be  a  boon. 

Builder     and      Wood-Worker, 

N.  Y. :  The  work  is  within  the  capacity 
of  any  one  trustworthy  enough  to  own  a 
sharp  jack-knife ;  indeed,  if  the  book  was 
placed  in  the  hands  of  every  boy  in  the 
United  States,  both  boys  and  States 
would  be  benefited. 

The  Carpenter,  St.  Louis :  No  bet- 
ter present  could  be  given  a  boy,  and 
carpenters  would  do  well  to  see  that  it  is 
in  the  hands  of  their  sons. 

Youth's  Examiner,  Chicago :  This 
is  one  of  the  neatest  and  most  useful 
volumes  it  has  been  our  privilege  to 
notice  for  some  time. 

C.  H.  Dietrich,  Supt.  of  Schools,  Hop- 
kinsville,  Ky. :  It  is  a  perfect  gem.  It  de- 
serves to  find  a  place  in  every  family  in 
America,  and  should  be  put  in  the  hands 
of  every  boy,  high  or  low,  rich  or  poor. 


lege  of  New  Jersey  :  It  is  an  admirable 
little  book.  Every  boy  should  be  taught 
just  the  things  it  so  well  presents. 

Chas.  Babcock,  Prof  of  Architec- 
ture  in    Cornell   Univ. :   I   commend  it 

heartily. 

Robt.  W.  Doutheat,  Secy  for  School 
of  Mines,  Rolla,  Mo.  :  I  feel  free  to  say 
that  I  have  never  before  seen  a  book 
which  so  completely  and  satisfactorily 
sets  forth  the  true  methods  of  using  the 
tools  needed  by  wood-workers. 

A.  Vander  Naillen,  Pres.  of  School 
of  Science,  San  Francisco,  Cal. :  I  reallv 
think  it  not  only  very  useful,  but  the  idea 
full  of  possibilities.  If  followed  up  by 
other  books  on  similar  subjects,  and  as 
copiously  illustrated,  the  idea  will  be  a 
civilizing  one,  and  the  benefit  to  our  ris- 
ing generations  simply  incalculable. 

Richard  Mott,  Pres.  of  Toledo  ( O.) 
Univ.  of  Arts  and  Trades :  This  is  a 
good  work.  An  intelligent  scholar  can 
acquire  from  it  a  fair  elementary  knowl- 
edge of  the  trade  without  apprenticeship. 

Chas.  H.   Benjamin,   Dept.  Mech. 

Engineeri?ig,   Ale.    State    Coll. :    It   will 


Manttal  Training. 


By  Prof.  C.  M.  Woodward,  of  the  Manual  Training  School,  Washington 
University,  St.  Louis. 

'T^HIS  book  is  exceedingly  practical,  its  main  object  being  to  show 
just  how  a  manual  training  school  should  be  organized  and  con- 
ducted. It  contains  courses  of  study,  programmes  of  daily  exercises, 
and  working  drawings  and  descriptions  of  class  exercises  in  wood  and. 
metal.  The  course  of  drawing,  which  has  proved  eminently  successful 
in  the  St.  Louis  school,  is  quite  fully  given.  \Ready  m  October. 


THE  FOLLOWING  TABLE  OF  CONTENTS  WILL  GIVI5  A 
GOOD  IDEA  OF  THE  CHARACTER  OF  DR.  WOOD- 
WARD'^ BOOK. 

CHAPTER 

I.  Historical  Introduction        ........ 

II.    The  First  Year  of  the  Manual  Training  School   . 

III.     The  Second  Year  of  the  Manual  Training  School    . 
lY.     The  Third  Year  of  the  Manual  Training  School  . 
V.     The  Records  and  Testimony  of  Graduates    . 
VI.    What  Others  who  have  seen  it  say  of  the  Results 

of  Manual  Training 

VII.    The   Complementary    Nature   of    Manual    Training. 

( Saratoga  Address  of  1882) 

VIII.     The    Fruits  of  Manual   Training.      (Saratoga  Address 

of  1883) 

IX.    Manual  Training  a  Feature  in  General  Education. 

{Philadelphia  Address  of  1885) 

X.     The  Origin,  Aims,  Methods,  and  Dignity  of  Polytech- 
-^  NIC  Training.     {St.  Louis  Address  of  1873) . 
XI.    Manual  Education.     {St.  Louis  Address  of  1878) 
XII.    Extracts  from  the  Prospectus  of  1879    .... 

XIII.  The  Province  of  Public  Education.      (Chicago  Address 

of  1887) 

XIV.  European  Schools 

XV.    Plans,  Shop  Discipline,  Teachers,  Reports,  etc.  . 

APPENDICES. 

I.    St.  Louis  Manual  Training  School  Course  of  Study  . 

II.  Toledo   Manual   Training   School   Course   of   Study 

FOR  Girls 

III.  Daily  Program    of   the  Toledo  High  and    Manual 

Training  School 

IV.  Manual  Training  in  the  High  School.    (Address  of  Gen. 

Francis  A.  Walker  at  Chicago,  1887) 

V.    Manual  Training  in  School  Education.    (By  Sir  Philip 
Magnus) 

\ 


1 


UCLA-Young  Research   Library 

LB1594   .S45 


L  009  596  274  2 


M--^RS!TY  OF.CALIFOBNIA, 

LLBRARY, 

\LOS  ANGELES,  CALIF. 


